Örlítið sneak-peek inn í austurríska hagfræði

Örlítil snilld, fullkomlega tekin úr samhengi (fyrirvari fyrir þann sem ætlar sér að tækla röksemdafærsluna hérna):

It is the essence of government that it alone obtains its revenue by the compulsory levy of taxation. All of its subsequent acts and expenditures, whatever their nature, rest on this taxing power. We have just seen that whenever government forces anyone to make an exchange which he would not have made, this person loses in utility as a result of the coercion. But taxation is just such a coerced exchange. If everyone would have paid just as much to the government under a system of voluntary payment, then there would be no need for the compulsion of taxes. Given the fact that coercion is used for taxes, therefore, and since all government actions rest on its taxing power, we deduce that: no act of government whatever can increase social utility. (#)

Þetta er dæmi um hvernig austurrísk hagfræði er byggð upp; á, að grunni til, óhrekjanlegum forsendum sem síðan er byggt á þannig að niðurstöður eru jafnsannar og grunnurinn sem þær byggja á (dæmi um grunnforsendu er t.d. "humans act"). Að þessu leyti er austurrísk hagfræði ólík t.d. sósíalisma, hagfræði Keynes og peningaprentunarhagfræði Milton Friedman.