Language and the Socialist-Calculation Problem (fwd link)

[Chun Jimmy Huang]

My question to Hieber and Mufuwene: Why are economic, or "market 
forces" considered "natural," while "state-driven ones" not? Could 
this distinction be made had Hieber and Mufuwene not taken the 
current economic system for granted, as an universal and ahistoric 
human condition?

And my response: sure the "language rights advocates" (a label 
used by Mufuwene to lump what seems to me several different groups 
of linguists together), or those of us who advocate linguistic 
diversity, are indeed enacting social change, or engendering "an 
alternative socio-economic world order" that can be recommended to 
those who suffer linguistic, and thus cultural, loss. This new 
social order, I hope, is (neo-)anarchy, which I evaluate 
positively.

Jimmy


On Thu Sep 09 16:47:03 EDT 2010, Phillip E Cash Cash 
<cashcash at EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU> wrote:

> Language and the Socialist-Calculation Problem
> 
> Mises Daily: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 by Danny Hieber
> 
> We have room for but one language in this country, and that is 
> the
> English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns 
> our
> people out as Americans, of    American nationality, and not as
> dwellers in a polyglot boarding house.
> 
>     ??? Theodore Roosevelt[1]
> 
> There are 6,909 languages alive in the world today. Seventy-four 
> are
> indigenous to California alone ??? languages like Hupa, Kawaiisu, 
> and
> Shoshone ??? while Papua New Guinea has over 800, with a median 
> of just
> 1,200 speakers per language.
> 
> As astonishing as these figures seem, they obscure a stark 
> reality:
> potentially half of these languages are set to vanish in the next
> century. Don't believe me? Consider that in North America, out of 
> 296
> known languages at the time of European contact, only 33 are 
> being
> actively passed down to the next generation. The rest will become
> extinct upon the death of their last speakers (if they haven't
> already), probably sometime this century.[2]
> 
> Access full article below:
> http://mises.org/daily/4687
> 
> 



Dr. Chun (Jimmy) Huang
Post-doc, National University of Kaohsiung
Linguistic consultant, Tainan Pingpu Siraya Culture Association