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The '''Austrian school of economics''' is a school of economic thought which supports the [[libertarian]] [[philosophy]] by pointing out the inefficiency and ineffectualness of government intervention.  However, Austrian economics is a positive, not a normative, school of thought and therefore has no inherent political leaning. It views all value as subjective, and that efficiency consists of maximizing value as sought by each individual.  It avoids [[mathematics]] because it does not feel math can capture the complexities of the economic world and, more importantly, because it views social sciences to be properly based on rationalism and ''[[a priori]]'' reasoning. Austrian economists, like many other free market economists including Chicago School and neo-classical economists, believe free trade is key to prosperity. Austrians, unlike many of the same economists however, also believe the free market can function in areas such as infrastructure (roads<ref>http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/7_1/7_1_1.pdf</ref>, electricity<ref>http://www.mises.org/journals/rae/pdf/RAE9_2_3.pdf</ref>, etc), defense (police<ref>http://mises.org/rothbard/newliberty11.asp</ref>, military<ref>http://mises.org/etexts/defensemyth.pdf</ref>), and dealing with "externalities" <ref>http://mises.org/pdf/asc/2003/asc9simpson.pdf</ref> (pollution<ref>http://mises.org/journals/scholar/Storfner.pdf</ref>, free riders<ref>http://mises.org/journals/scholar/Murphy6.pdf</ref>, etc). Austrian School reasoning starts from self-evident truths (human being acts) and deduces everything from there.

The '''Austrian school of economics''' is a school of economic thought which supports the [[libertarian]] [[philosophy]] by pointing out the inefficiency and ineffectualness of government intervention.  However, Austrian economics is a positive, not a normative, school of thought and therefore has no inherent political leaning. It views all value as subjective, and that efficiency consists of maximizing value as sought by each individual.  It avoids [[mathematics]] because it does not feel math can capture the complexities of the economic world and, more importantly, because it views social sciences to be properly based on rationalism and ''[[a priori]]'' reasoning. Austrian economists, like many other free market economists including Chicago School and neo-classical economists, believe free trade is key to prosperity. Austrians, unlike many of the same economists however, also believe the free market can function in areas such as infrastructure (roads<ref>http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/7_1/7_1_1.pdf</ref>, electricity<ref>http://www.mises.org/journals/rae/pdf/RAE9_2_3.pdf</ref>, etc), defense (police<ref>http://mises.org/rothbard/newliberty11.asp</ref>, military<ref>http://mises.org/etexts/defensemyth.pdf</ref>), and dealing with "externalities" <ref>http://mises.org/pdf/asc/2003/asc9simpson.pdf</ref> (pollution<ref>http://mises.org/journals/scholar/Storfner.pdf</ref>, free riders<ref>http://mises.org/journals/scholar/Murphy6.pdf</ref>, etc). Austrian School reasoning starts from self-evident truths (human being acts) and deduces everything from there.