Anyone who advocates the ideas of the Austrian school of economics, whether broadly and publicly or even in the context of private discussions with friends and acquaintances, will almost immediately find themselves grappling with the tricky question of how to distill the core essence of what Austrian economics actually is, and how to convey those truly definitive characteristics as briefly and simply as possible. Given the nearly 150 years during which Austrian theory has been continuously growing and evolving, this is certainly no small task, especially seeing as the definitive texts in this tradition tend to be thousand-page treatises which newcomers are unlikely to approach with enthusiasm.
So what actually is the most essential characteristic of Austrian