HERE! THE BOOK IS FREE! READ MORE! IT IS LITERALLY RIGHT BELOW THIS PARAGRAPH! Your lazy ass does not even have to walk the whole two blocks to the library, you can just roll over in your semen covered bed with gummy worms stuck to your back and pizza crumbs ingrained and meshed in your disgusting pubic-like chest hair and fumble with the mouse until you click on the link, and read a very short and simple explanation of economics in one easy lesson...This is probably the most important book written on economics in the history of the world and it is right there, there it is, right below this very sentence!!!!! LITERALLY!

http://fee.org/files/doclib/20121116_...

Whatever, I KNEW you would lose interest immediately, eat another Totino's microwaveable pizza and go back to watching porn...you're a lazy asshole....


Yes, this man is related to William Hazlitt, it makes the reading that much more interesting. Also, I discovered a new word "boondoggling". It is a fun word to say. It is fun to say in a Southern accent also, give it a whirl... SEE...

Anyways, stop boondoggling my time and get the hell outta here...

Quotes:

"The bad economist sees what only immediately strikes the eye; the good economist also looks beyond."

"The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act of policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups. Nine-tenths of the economic fallacies that are working such dreadful harm in the world today are the result of ignoring this lesson."

Chapter 2 (the baker, the glazier, and the suit maker)

Economics in One Lesson must be an absolute necessity for any Austrian School of Economics advocates. Hazlitt fiercely dissects and debunks the many economic fallacies created by government policy and special interest groups. Every single lesson is truly a testament to real economic prosperity rather than delusions spouted by politicians and media personnel.
All 25 Lessons have significant importance, but fundamentally, the preeminent lesson is inflation. Single-handedly, inflation can be blamed as the single most destructive use of government intervention. Inflation is slaughtering every single nation across the globe. Inflation devalues the currency while lowering the purchasing power. Not only is inflation destructive, but the assault on savings is absolutely absurd. Savings is essential to prosperity because not only does spending a portion directly contribute to economic growth, but building a savings account in a bank or credit union allows businesses to borrow for new capital investment to fill in gap of their own savings.
Overall, this is one of my favorite books because it embodies the persona of Austrian Economics while it separates fact from myth in the economic science.

This is a true ‘Economics for Dummies’ book. It can be useful in case you want something handy to bang over an economic nit-wit's head on short notice. Only such a dummy would be unable to puncture your simplistic arguments or need them in the first place.

Beyond that, it is hard to envisage much use for this volume, whether for serious discussion or for serious reflection. So if the initial bang was not good enough and if you pack no other arsenal, you might as well get out of there, and fast. This failing is primarily for want of breadth of scope and an explicit avoidance of addressing possible arguments.

After all, any book that promises to reduce an entire discipline to ‘one lesson’ should not expect to have much more effectiveness than a poorly aimed sledge hammer.

Of course, there is a case for reading a book like this. Firstly, it might have been useful and even an essential book back then. Textbooks lack bite. Sometimes a book needs to come along that takes a point of view and is not shy of an argument, and of drilling in a single pov to the point of exhaustion. Which is probably why this book has lasted 50 odd years and is still only moderately outdated.

But to a modern student, such an unqualified approach can only seem like sophistry. He is too jaded to believe in panaceas.

This is a great introduction to Austrian (free-market) economics and the capitalist response to common economic fallacies. This short book is not a comprehensive, complex analysis of economic issues nor does it claim to be so. The clarity and simplicity of Hazlitt's presentation make Economics in One Lesson an essential starter for any one interested in capitalist economic theory. I did not think I would enjoy the book as much as I did. I would recommend it to anyone.

I can't even count the number of times already that topics discussed in this book have come up in everyday conversation. To me that is the major value of a book like this and an indication of its effectiveness. The "one lesson" is this: to truly understand economics (and make good economic policies) we must consider the short-term and long-term effects of a policy as well as how it affects all people immediately and in the future.

There has been a paradigm shift in my thinking. I have been confronted with the truths of economics and have abandoned many of the liberal policies I grew up supporting. It has happened in a matter of months and is a permanent change. In this regard I have shed the skin of my former self. That doesn't make me a conservative necessarily, but it does make me a better-informed liberal. The change that this book and Ron Paul's Manifesto have brought to my life is just as important and revolutionary as my spiritual awakening.

It is a great book and an engaging, fast read for those interested in basic macroeconomic principles. Much of the book is concerned with providing examples for the above mentioned lesson. Some of these are fascinating and deserve pages and pages of commentary.

Since starting this book, I have had casual everyday conversations about minimum wage laws, the proper place and function of income taxes, tariffs, and government subsidy of the X industry. These conversations have been so much fun! If people stopped to consider how these policies affected the whole community, I don't doubt that we would see a fundamental change in economic policy.

I hope that our generation can escape the flawed economic policies that drive our country farther and farther away from prosperity.

a triumph in the art of oversiplification

Presents the reader with an alternative approach of thinking about economic phenomena (long term vs short term effects of policy changes and their influences on majority vs minority) which in my opinion is a strong case for reading this book. The only downside for me is that the author sometimes exaggerates some of his claims and operates on his premises only trying to justify his initial point (maybe I am wrong but I got this feeling quite a few times while reading this book). Overall a great read, highly recommend it to anyone interested in economics.

When read a an political economical theory it's interesting and easy read. But the book claims to present a lesson in economical fact and that is not the case. It presents a case for free market that might be mouthwatering for republicans and neocons, but is a nightmare to everyone else.

(DUTCH) Dit boek van Hazlitt werd mij van harte aanbevolen als handig instapboek om mijn economische kennis wat te vergoten. En inderdaad, de toon en inhoud van het boek zijn begrijpelijk en zorgen dat het lekker wegleest. Alleen bekroop mij al snel het gevoel dat ik wel heel erg de natte droom van de Republikeinse partij uit Amerika aan het doornemen was. Belastingen zijn slecht en een belemmering voor bedrijven en dus werkgelegenheid, overheidsuitgaven kunnen beter door particulieren worden gedaan. Vervolgens is de schrijver meer bezig met argumenten tegen deze ideeën weg te zetten als dom, in plaats van de eigen ideeën te bewijzen.

De enorm simpele toon van het boek, en de slimme opmerking aan het begin van het boek dat onderbouwen en bewijzen van de stellingen ten koste gaat van de begrijpelijkheid van deze economische les zal sommigen in slaap wiegen. Dit is echt een boek om flink alert te zijn.

Hoe meer ik las waar ik het niet mee eens was, hoe meer ik mezelf dwong te formuleren waarom het voor mij niet klopte. Op die manier leerde ik veel over economie, maar niet zoals de schrijver dat zou willen. Hazlitt argument vaak zo: als zus of zo gebeurt, dan is dit het gevolg. Dat de connecties en gevolgen soms vrij twijfelachtig zijn hoeft hij niet te onderbouwen. Daarvoor heeft hij zich in zijn voorwoord al ingedekt.

Vooral zijn uitleg over hoe nieuwe technologie geen banen kost is echt te makkelijk en aantoonbaar onjuist. Ook zijn vertrouwen in particuliere bedrijven is zo groot dat je er met de laatste economische crisis in gedachten om moet grinniken. Zijn idee is dat de overheid onverantwoordelijk omgaat met belastinggeld omdat er geen persoonlijke verantwoording is. Het idee van "other people's money". Particuliere bedrijven zouden dit nooit doen. Die schatten verantwoordelijker in wat aanvaardbare risico's zijn. Nou meneer Hazlitt, dat hebben we geweten.

Veel basisprincipes van de economie worden wel duidelijk en eenvoudig aan me uitgelegd. Elke economische actie heeft een reactie, zowel op korte als op lange termijn. De claim dat veel politici en economen teveel naar de korte termijn kijken, daar zit zeker wat in. Over de gevolgen op lange termijn, daarover verschillen ik en de schrijver af en toe van mening.

Groen Links politicus Jesse Klaver kreeg me in zijn boek niet mee in zijn strijd tegen te veel economisch denken. Dat het lezen van dit vrije conservatieve boek dit wel lukt is dan ook te ironisch voor woorden. Dat is misschien dat ook het belangrijkste dat ik leerde door dit boek. Kijk ook bij mensen met een totaal andere mening of je misschien ideeën vindt waar je iets mee kan. En zo niet, vraag jezelf altijd af WAAROM je het precies niet met ze eens bent.

Okay, so this was actually really helpful!

I’ve never considered economics to be my best subject but this book was actually pretty easy to understand. Of course, sometimes there were things that just flew over my head but overall I was able to comprehend the concepts he talked about!

This book really helped me with economics and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone else who struggles with the subject.

I was interested in having some basic idea about economics. So, looked up in Quora on how to start. This book was suggested by Quora users. Did not waste much time, and got my hands dirty.

When I wrote my review of Atlas Shrugged, I might have been pretty easy on the book. But this one made me realize that every incident described by Ayn Rand is not a piece of the author's imagination, but a fact taken from reality. And trust me, that is a scary thought!

There are different factions and schools of economic thoughts. Hazlitt subscribes to the Austrian school of thoughts. It propounds that while making economic policies, one should not just look at the immediate effect of that policy on a special group of people, but should think out its long term effect on the whole community. And Hazlitt goes on to show how government intervention on free market upsets the whole economy in the long run - be it taxes, or price control, or import duties. He does not bring in a lot of data and statistics, true, but proves his views on the basis of pure logic. And it somehow seems right to me, because it agrees with common sense. The more you try to restrict free market, the less it produces. Destruction, such as war, cannot boost economy, that has to be a misconception. Otherwise people would just go into a war whenever the economy falls. Price control tends to make the commodity less available. These are results of common sense. However, there must be circumstances where such taxes, price controls, etc. have to be exerted. For example, taxes are required to provide the basic ammunities of life - health, fire safety, police, etc., as well as to maintain a strong defence system in the country.

I got some valuable lessons from this book. First, money is not the ultimate measure of wealth. You will have more money if there is an inflation - but the value of money will have dropped. In other words, you can buy less, even though you have more money. So, having a lot of money should not be anyone's economic goal, but to have enough money to buy what they want seems like a sounder goal.

Secondly, market behaves the most suitably to both the producer and the consumer when left to find its own equilibrium. Prices are determined by demand and supply, and nothing else (this idea has been corroborated by a lecture I had seen on economics by Prof. Kenneth Train from U C Berkeley). When prices are tried to be controlled, this equilibrium gets upset and causes an economic loss for the country. Nothing else is possible.

Taxes are necessary, only when the services provided by that tax is more important that what the taxpayer would have bought using the money given in tax. In other words, the need for the service provided needs to be more than the taxpayer's personal wants. Otherwise, the value provided by the service is less and hence it results in a loss for the community.

Jobs cannot be created by the government. When the government uses the tax to create jobs, it essentially takes away someone else's job in the form of the tax.

There are a lot more lessons to learn from this book. It is written for the common mass - no need of prior knowledge of any economic theory is needed. One can follow the book very easily. The language is like that of a fireside conversation. The logic is simplistic, but sound.

This book is a must-read for every person, since it gives a fair idea about handling money and economy - something that is intrinsically ours to make our lives better.

For more reviews, check out http://booksmoreorless.blogspot.com

"Government-guaranteed home mortgages, especially when a negligible down payment or no down payment whatever is required, inevitably mean more bad loans than otherwise. They force the general taxpayer to subsidize the bad risks and to defray the losses. They encourage people to "buy" houses that they cannot really afford. They tend eventually to bring about an oversupply of houses as compared with other things. They temporarily overstimulate building, raise the cost of building for everybody (including the buyers of the homes with the guaranteed mortgages), and may mislead the building industry into an eventually costly overexpansion. In brief, in the long run they do not increase overall national production but encourage malinvestment."


"... the solution is never to reduce supplies arbitrarily, to prevent further inventions or discoveries, or to support people for continuing to perform a service that has lost its value. Yet this is what the world has repeatedly sought to do by protective tariffs, by the destruction of machinery, by the burning of coffee, by a thousand restriction schemes. This is the insane doctrine of wealth through scarcity."

"When Alexander the Great visited the philosopher Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for him, Diogenes is said to have replied: "Yes, stand a little less between me and the sun." It is what every citizen is entitled to ask of his government"

Hazlitt's central lesson in the book is that economics science is about seeing the big picture of economic intervention. One must look beyond the obvious direct effects of an economic intervention, such as the subsidy of goods, increase of wages, creation of jobs, etc, to see the many ripple effects of those policies, such as creating scarcities, forcing consumers to pay a higher price for goods and cutting off the poorest workers from jobs, the destruction or prevention of creation of jobs elsewhere in the private market, respectively. He discusses in detail the concept of the seen and the unseen to illustrate this fallacy among economists and politicians to focus on the direct "seen" effects of economic intervention, but to ignore the "unseen" destruction that is causes. Vice versa, focus on the "seen" effects of job and production loss from creative destruction during economic restructuring and reinvestment, and ignore the "unseen" creation of new jobs and opportunities created by the freeing up of capital to be used in more productive ways.

After introducing the lesson in the first chapter, Hazlitt uses the rest of the book to introduce over 20 examples of government intervention, such as minimum wage, rent control, parity pricing for farmers, unions laws, corporate subsidies, credit expansion, etc, to really drive his point home on how shortsighted policy actually exacerbates the conditions is was seeking to correct.

It is especially interesting that this book was originally written in 1946 -- but you can't really tell because it is even more applicable today than it was when it was written. The first quote about government-guaranteed mortgages was a very impressive portention.

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