MMM Meets Tyler Cowen

[Yankuba]

Famous economist and author Tyler Cowen shares his thoughts on MMM

http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/03/what-if-everyone-lived-like-mr-money-moustache.html

[trugrit03]

It seems like Mr. Cowen's post isn't the least bit thought out. No evidence, studies, or even rationale as to why he thinks the way that he does. It also doesn't seem like he took much time to understand the philosophy that he was opposing, as MMM has addressed why the sky wouldn't fall if everyone did what he is doing. We've seen that MMM welcomes people challenging his ideas so long as they do so in a logical, well thought out way. So I'd encourage Tyler Cowen to go back and do that.

[James]

It is a gut reaction to a characterization of MMM. He didn't spend much time thinking about his post, and I won't spend my time responding to it.

[retireatbirth]

It is pretty obvious to me that if everyone lived like MMM, we would all just lead much simpler lives. Many stores and products, of course, would not exist, but that would be for the better. The only potential negative I can see is that financial institutions would be run by 20-somethings and might not be able to function as effectively.

[Retired To Win]

Quoting Mr. Cowen:

"...my worry is that happiness may not go up much in this early retirement and in fact it may go down; people seem to enjoy working, which is good for their health and their social involvement.  Perhaps Mr. Money Mustache derives a sense of purpose from spreading this gospel, but most people would end up bored and indeed frustrated if they retired at age thirty..."

Nothing new in that guy's fuzzy thinking.  The same old stereotypes.  The same mainstream mantra.  "Seem to enjoy working"?? What the hell does that mean?  "Most people would end up bored and frustrated"??  Says who? (He should just speak for himself.)

And this Tyler Cowen is a famous economist?  Spare me!!

[Prowlers]

Being a big, and longtime fan, of both MMM and Tyler Cowen (Marginalrevolution.com), I would step up and defend Tyler just a bit.  It seems to me that he didn't spend much time learning what MMM is truly all about and just read "High Savings rate so that one can retire early in order to sit around and do nothing."  And he is right, many people who stop working altogether don't have the curiosity, hobbies, and personal discipline that MMM has to productively pursue other interests.  No judgement, that just seems like a relatively uncontroversial observation.  There is a significant, non-zero number of people who retire at 65 and are less happy post-retirement than pre-retirement (I, of course, am using the word "retirement" here to indicate the traditional type of retirement, I am not part of the Internet Retirement Police brigade). 

I'm sure not every reader on here completely got MMM the first time they read a post and Tyler Cowen is no different than the rest of us.  He blog isn't a policy paper or academic paper, it is to post his thoughts on just like this forum.  He even qualifies his statement with, "If I understand him correctly, he recommends a very high savings rate and very early retirement", indicating that he might not be understanding MMM correctly (not exactly "fuzzy thinking").  And he appears to have linked an addendum to the original to clarify.

If you want a blog that has a fair amount of original, non-partisan thinking (sound familiar?) on topics ranging from the money supply to where to get good ethnic food in Birmingham, AL, I recommend giving Marginal Revolution a chance.

[Retire-Canada]

It is a gut reaction to a characterization of MMM. He didn't spend much time thinking about his post, and I won't spend my time responding to it.

+1 - lame post.

[dragoncar]

It is a gut reaction to a characterization of MMM. He didn't spend much time thinking about his post, and I won't spend my time responding to it.

+1 - lame post.

Worst.  Post.  Ever.

[arcangel911]

This isn't the worst post out there.... but is sure is close.

I like his whole part about people wanting to work into retirement and after it as well. Either this blogger has no life, lots of money or is really suffering from his head in deep dark tunnel.

I work in healthcare and I can tell you, most nurses are trying their damnedest to figure out retirement and if they can truly "retire".