{"id":757,"date":"2010-09-23T09:09:43","date_gmt":"2010-09-23T15:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/?p=757"},"modified":"2010-10-03T10:15:29","modified_gmt":"2010-10-03T16:15:29","slug":"economics-in-one-lesson-the-shortest-and-surest-way-to-understand-basic-economics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/?p=757","title":{"rendered":"Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson<\/a> was also recommended by an economics instructor, I think as a counter-balance to the Keynesians<\/a> I’d been reading.\u00a0 The book was originally written in 1946, and the version I read was updated in 1978.\u00a0\u00a0 Even with the ’78 revision,\u00a0 I felt like I was in a town hall or a church meeting room, listening to Mr. Hazlitt<\/a> at his pulpit.\u00a0\u00a0 Writing style aside, here’s a direct quote from the end of the first section of the first chapter, which sums up the book nicely:<\/p>\n

“From this aspect, therefore, the whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson, and that lesson can be reduced to a single sentence.\u00a0 The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.<\/em>“<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hazlitt then goes on through the rest of the book with example after example of how government interference with the market leads to an unfair market and an inefficient market.\u00a0 And how these conditions rob people of work, purchasing power, wages and\/or dignity.\u00a0 Hewlitt is a believer in Classical Economics<\/a>, and a staunch critic of the Keynesians.\u00a0 The book is broken up into short chapters with shorter sections, each of which describe the evil effects of government programs such as minimum wages, subsidies, tariffs, over-empowered unions (although Hazlitt does support the right for workers to organize), and many other federal and state market interventions.\u00a0 The book was like a tonic.\u00a0 It helped me think more critically about the Keynesian-based economics of the last several books I’d just finished.\u00a0 Of course, I’ve got a long way to go before I can weigh in on the Classical v. Keynesian debate, but I’m glad I read Hazlitt early on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson was also recommended by an economics instructor, I think as a counter-balance to the Keynesians I’d been reading. The book was originally written in 1946, and the version I read was updated in 1978. Even with the ’78 revision, I felt like I was in a town hall or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[15],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=757"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":772,"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757\/revisions\/772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relaxandhavefun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}