Economics in One Lesson-#1

jim.com ^ | 1979 | Henry Hazlitt

[arthurus]

Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man. This is no accident. The inherent difficulties of the subject would be great enough in any case, but they are multiplied a thousandfold by a factor that is insignificant in, say, physics, mathematics or medicine-the special pleading of selfish interests. While every group has certain economic interests identical with those of all groups, every group has also, as we shall see, interests antagonistic to those of all other groups. While certain public policies would in the long run benefit everybody, other policies would benefit one group only at the expense of all other groups. The group that would benefit by such policies, having such a direct interest in them, will argue for them plausibly and persistently. It will hire the best buyable minds to devote their whole time to presenting its case. And it will finally either convince the general public that its case is sound, or so befuddle it that clear thinking on the subject becomes next to impossible.

In addition to these endless pleadings of self-interest, there is a second main factor that spawns new economic fallacies every day. This is the persistent tendency of men to see only the immediate effects of a given policy, or its effects only on a special group, and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be not only on that special group but on all groups. It is the fallacy of overlooking secondary consequences.

[arthurus]

This is THE basic economics text for the nonprofessional. It is short. Everyone should read it. It should be required for every student before high school graduation. I required my own children to read it once in middle school and again in high school. They have other interests as adults and don't care about economics but when they hear someone talking about how the government can fix something their minds automatically embark on a chain of reasoning and they cannot be snowed by any sort of government or collectivist scheme.

[Tenacious 1]

Read later

[the_devils_advocate_666]

Is this the first in a series of one?

[IronJack]

Bookmark

[LuvFreeRepublic]

Bump so I can find this later. Thanks for the post.

[arthurus]

You can read the whole book at the site. I will try to post chapters from time to time, either the ones I think mowt germane or maybe serially all of them. You can and should buy it. Amazon has it sometimes. http://mises.org/store/Economics-in-One-Lesson-P33C0.aspx has it all the time.

[PubliusMM]

ping

[MissNomer]

For later reading.