Volume 1: A sound on Wall Street, Xinxiang City is busy copying books Chapter 16: Living off others
This chapter's subtitle: The three great joys in a master's life: publishing a book, becoming famous, and his wife's death
As a 21st century master of economics, Yuan Yanshu, who had memorized the history of 20th century economics, naturally knew that the mainstream economics community was currently engaged in a great debate on whether socialism or capitalism was the right path. Well-known economists at the time were involved in this debate on whether a planned economy under socialist public ownership was feasible.
Needless to say, as a great scholar of neoclassical liberalism, Master Mises (Ludwig Heinrich Adler von Mises) can still sing praises for the planned economy? Look at the "Adler" in the middle of his name.” and “Two HorsesAs a member of the Habsburg Empire aristocracy and the Jewish upper class, he was of course opposed to socialism.
PR. Misera, who is still an economic adviser to the Austrian government, published an article entitled "Economic Calculation under the Socialist System" this spring, in which he denied the possibility of implementing economic calculation and rational allocation of resources under socialism.
A talented person is one who can make simple things complicated and complicated things simple.
Yuan Yanshu was quite knowledgeable. He knew that Mises' main argument for denying the planned economy was that the capitalist market was too complex to be artificially copied, so the planned economy could not allocate resources as effectively as the invisible hand.
In fact, this argument is not entirely without problems. First, can the capitalist market really allocate resources effectively? Second, is allocating resources effectively equivalent to allocating resources in accordance with the actual conditions of each economy?
As for the former, everyone will understand the truth in nine years when they see milk being poured into the Hudson River; as for the latter, can the practice of the Soviet revisionists and TG, which violates the laws of the market economy and concentrates resources on heavy industry and infrastructure projects with long cycles and low returns, be considered "effective"?
However, it is not the Great Depression of 1929 yet, and the capitalist world has not yet fallen to the point where it needs to be saved by Keynes and the mustache. There is still room for speculation. In 1920, when liberalism was in vogue, it was more than enough to exchange Mises's Socialism for a doctorate in political economics.
The problem is that Yuan Yan suddenly knew that once he threw out this book, it would be tantamount to cutting himself off from the party-state and the people. This party-state is not just one, and the people here do not just refer to the 400 million Chinese. Not to mention that the big and small figures in the international communist movement, which will be prosperous for more than half a century in the future, will not tolerate him. In fact, even Sun Tiequan, who will not live for a few years, and Jiang Beitui, who will not be handsome for more than 30 years, will not tolerate him. Don't think that they will really engage in capitalist free market economy just because they are surrounded by PhDs from the United States.
If Yuan Yanshu continues to work in the economics circle, his treatment will not be much better than that of Mises, unless he waits until the 1970s when neoclassical liberalism finally enjoys a second spring, not only counterattacking Keynesianism, but also transforming into Thatcher-Reaganism that dominates the two major powers of Britain and the United States. Even more fortunately, at the same time, "a vain fool" (Mrs. Thatcher's comment) became the General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
In fact, when Comrade Gorbachev came to power, Yuan Yanshu was only 85 years old... I'm not kidding, for a master, eighty years old is not considered old at all; and there is no disrespect at all, some masters in their nineties still marry 40-year-old brides.
Imagine yourself at the age of 85 (if you can live to see that ) tremblingly walking up to the Nobel Prize podium... Or you can buy a diploma from Clayton University, return to your country and live a life of idleness and waiting for death as a young master of a local landlord. If that doesn't work, you can just work in the bank run by your father-in-law to make a living.
The problem is that this gigolo is not so delicious, because his wife, or to be more precise, his fiancée is dead.
There was a man named Zhou in their hometown who made a fortune by opening an iron shop in Shanghai. He also organized a small bank with fellow villagers in the same industry, called "Dianjin Bank", and he was honored as the manager. He remembered the idiom of returning home in glory, and one year he went back to the county during the Qingming Festival to worship the ancestral temple and sweep the graves, and got to know the local people. Yuan Yanshu's father was a well-known figure in the village, so Manager Zhou had to visit him, and they became friends, and then became relatives. He was still in high school when his family arranged for him to get engaged.
Of course, like most masters of the Republic of China, he also resisted this arranged marriage. However, Yuan Yanshu was weak-willed and gave up after being scolded by his father.
So he started reading Schopenhauer very early, and often wisely told his classmates: "Where is love in the world? It is just a reproductive impulse."
After graduating from high school, Yuan Yanshu entered Shanghai Hujiang University (the predecessor of Shanghai Institute of Technology) to continue her studies. It was already her fourth year in college, and she was just waiting to graduate and get married next year. One day, her father sent her a quick letter saying, "I just received a telegram from your father-in-law. I was shocked to learn that Shuying (his fiancée's maiden name) had typhoid fever and was misdiagnosed by Western medicine. She passed away at 4 pm on the 13th of this month. It is a great pity. You are about to get married, but good things are hard to come by. It's all because of your bad luck."
As a Western medicine hater, Yuan Yanshu's father wrote to his son to tell him that his wife, who didn't even need to add her name to the property certificate, had died of malaria due to Western witchcraft. This only shows that his son is unlucky. A well-educated and well-mannered family like the Yuan family would not engage in medical trouble.
He added a few more sentences at the end of the letter: "A blessing in disguise . If we had gotten married three years ago, my family would have spent a lot of money. However, my family has accumulated a lot of virtue. If the marriage is completed early, the daughter-in-law may be able to avoid disaster and prolong her life. Marriage is predestined, so don't be too sad. But you should send a letter to your father-in-law to express your condolences."
His father also knew about chaos theory, so he wrote at the end of the letter: It is not necessarily a bad thing that the old driver can't start the car because the horse is lost. What if it happens to be a crackdown? If you had gotten married three years ago, my family would have suffered a heavy loss this time. But if you had gotten married three years ago, your wife might not have died because of the butterfly effect. You don't have to think too much about this matter, but you should write a condolence letter to your father-in-law.
In fact, Yuan Yanshu was happy to see the prisoner pardoned, but he also felt a little pity for the short-lived girl. Since he was enjoying the joy of freedom, he wanted to relieve others of their sorrow, so he sent a long letter of condolence to his father-in-law who had not yet married into the family. Manager Zhou received the letter and felt that the child was polite, so he asked Director Wang of the bank's secretarial department to reply. The director of the secretarial department saw the original letter and complimented the boss on the son-in-law who had not yet married into the family for his good literary and calligraphy skills, and his deep feelings for the deceased. He thought that he had a very kind nature and must be a person of great potential.
