Funny, I was just having a conversation about the pretense of knowledge with someone last night. We weren’t specifically referring to Fredrick Hayek’s 1974 lecture, but just how one encounters such an attitude, primarily among liberal academics. With five colleges, there’s a helluva lot of that here in G’boro. Then there’s our current academic-in-chief. His pretense of knowledge practically oozes out of him, especially when he’s speaking extemporaneously.

JLF’s Roy Cordato discusses the ‘pretense of knowledge’ as it relates to so-called ‘energy efficient’ products:

“This is a great example of the problem known as ‘the pretense of knowledge,'” he said. “Economist Friedrich Hayek warned about this problem when he collected his Nobel Prize in economics in 1974. He warned so-called experts against pretending to have information that they could not possibly obtain. He also warned against using that ‘knowledge’ in designing public policy. Proponents of energy efficiency measures offer a textbook case of ‘the pretense of knowledge.'”

These experts contend that energy saved through mandates is more valuable to society than whatever goods and services could have been produced without devoting resources to reducing energy use, Cordato said. “Beyond ‘the pretense of knowledge,’ it is the height of presumptuousness,” he said. “If these experts really had enough information to make that call, they could adopt central planning for the entire economy.”

Which gets down the circular argument that most liberals can’t quite get their arms around. Another perfect example is electric cars —- where will the power come from to generate the electricity? Coal-fired power plants.

More from Cordato below.