An entertaining My View (“Harris does not understand economics,” October 24-30) by the Czech transplant, Ivan Orisek. Not quite up to the standards of his compatriot, Kafka, since he strays from the absurd to the polemical as he proceeds. Despite being a lawyer, according to Orisek, Harris does not understand the law. Moreover, the lack of a law school education benefitted the last three Republican presidents (perhaps Orisek did not wholly abandon absurdity). Then, again, “let’s kill all the lawyers” has been a popular solution to social problems ever since Willie penned the ambiguous advice.

As for the “dismal science,” the political economy is not much of a science at all; it is the study of whatever arbitrary system is in place—the differences dependent upon who gets to make the rules. For Orisek, the Bush-men and Trump were advantaged by their business backgrounds, although he fails to explain how that helped them to carry out the will of the people.

For the latter (and “W”), linking “success” with either their business or government activities may be oxymoronic. Trump did make extensive use of lawyers to thus far stay out of prison. That evokes consideration of the irony that Orisek’s two hero-economists,  von Mises and von Hayek (with Austrian connections, although the latter had Czech origins), were both lawyers.

And both, as most Europeans might attribute to their Austrian background, had fascist tendencies. While generally within the (classical) liberal tradition, when necessary they would support authoritarian remedies.

The nitty-gritty: Orisek recalls unhappy times with the Czech planned economy after 1947; I remember my mother’s trading the entire ration book to the local butcher a few years earlier, to make sure we always had meat on the table. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose!

John MacKinnon
Lackawaxen, PA