Austrian Economics and Anarcho-Capitalism: Peace, Prosperity and Freedom

Michael McKay
Lew Rockwell

I am a businessman which is to say I am a professional calculator of risk and risk taker. I also am the guy who faces the unknown and the unknowable; this is something extra special which economists Frank H. Knight and Ludwig von Mises called “Uncertainty.”

Risk and uncertainty are always there and they both are something everyone wishes would go away. At least with Risk you can calculate probabilities; but there are also things that are totally unknown and unknowable – these are those pesky uncertainties about the future. Understanding risk and uncertainty and our willingness – or not – to take on risk and uncertainty tells us a lot about ourselves and how we approach the world.

For example, in The Concise Guide to Economics (Ludwig von Mises Institute; 3rd edition, 2007) author Jim Cox says that the entrepreneur risks and waits and you should note these are two things that the employee cannot do – the employee must be pretty darn sure that they are going to get paid at the end of the week or they just won’t show up! The entrepreneur can’t just quit like that. He doesn’t know if there will be money left over so that he too can get paid; he must risk and wait to see.

Read Full Article