More economic ignorance on display from Ocasio-Cortez, possessor of a dual degree in economics and international relations from Boston University.

See this as well.

When I was reading about the latest from Ocasio-Cortez, I started to remember all the giddy guffawing from the left back during the 2008 campaign when Sarah Palin was mocked for statements that were far less ignorant than the sort of things that Ocasio-Cortez says every day. But Sarah Palin was on the right (and a vice presidential nominee) and Ocasio-Cortez is on the left and “only” running for a seat in the US House of Representatives—a House the Democrats are desperate to take over and the GOP is eager to keep—from a district in which getting the Democratic nomination (which Ocasio-Cortez has already secured) is tantamount to winning the election.

Thus there is almost no question that the abysmally ignorant and yet telegenic Ocasio-Cortez will be winning her election and going to Washington DC to vote on matters that will directly affect us all. And of course, she is hardly alone in her ignorance, both economic and otherwise. If her constituents are economically ignorant (as well as historically ignorant, and ignorant in many other ways), why should they demand more knowledge of her, and how would they even know the difference? The press used to serve some of that function, but much of the press is often a combination of the ignorant and the partisan, so that’s not really of much help.

Regular readers of this blog are aware that I claim no particular expertise myself on economic matters. In fact, the only economics course I ever took was in high school. But it was enough to make me aware of certain basic facts. I’ve been amazed at how often I see an opinion piece or hear a politician or see a tweet that states ideas that can only be believed by someone who thinks that if you throw enough money at something it will be fixed, that it’s easy to get enough money to fix it if the political will is there, that the only impediment to that is the greed of the right, that the pockets of the rich are inexhaustibly full and that it’s perfectly okay to reach into them as much as you deem necessary, that the taxed have no behavioral response to taxes and that their actions and earnings will remain exactly the same no matter how much of their money is taxed, and that the people advocating all of this are such experts that they know exactly how to accomplish all of this.

Ignorant of economics, of history, of human nature, of common sense, but with no lack of arrogance and hubris, they march on. And those are the ones with the better motives—there are also those who are not ignorant of any of this, but merely see it as a path to power.

Members of the former group doesn’t see themselves as having any role in creating a situation with any resemblance whatsoever to the one described in the following Orwell quote from his dystopic Nineteen Eighty-Four. Members of the latter group see themselves, but are pleased to believe that it is they who will be wearing those boots:

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.

[NOTE: This post was originally on my older blog and had comments, but unfortunately the comments didn’t transfer over here.]