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Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics |  | Author: Henry Hazlitt
Creator: Jeff Riggenbach
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
List Price: £15.14
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Rating:  7 reviews
Format: Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.8 x 5.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 1433272466
Dewey Decimal Number: 330
EAN: 9781433272462
Publication Date: April 2009
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
 Clear and unsentimental, but also simplistic and with little hope for so many April 24, 2010
Alastair Ross (Aberdeenshire, Scotland)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book presents the hard facts of economics in simple and accessible terms. It deserves to be read as a clear and unsentimental review of economic reality in a free market. The author examines and dismisses a wide range of misguided policies which, he argues, ultimately fail to deliver real prosperity. Prosperity he defines as real and lasting improvement in the conditions of the totality of the human race. It's a good definition and one that deserves our support.
But the author makes two critical assumptions and fails to address what happens when those assumptions break down. These are that labour and money are perfectly mobile, and that consumers have full and perfectly understandable information about all competitors in the market.
There are markets in the developed world where his assumptions may be reasonable for practical purposes - the USA for one - and it is notable that the author writes principally from his experience in the US. But there are places where these assumptions are not valid. Labour on an African farm does not enjoy the luxury of retraining to work on the car production lines of Detroit. Immmigration barriers and education barriers stand in their way.
The practical questions for global economic development reach far beyond the grasp of this book.
The author argues quite cogently against the many forms of trade and labour protection and his line of argument is strong - but only in an already free market. He offers no answer to the poverty of so much of the human race - those people whose lives are under constant threat with no realistic opportunity to change their situation because their market is not in fact free.
In the same way that our species nurtures and protects our children until they are strong enough to fend for themselves so also do we need to nurture and protect those economies that are determined to grow strong and contribute to our global wealth. As every parent knows it is a balancing act - some freedom, some protection, some exposure to threat and opportunity - until the whole is able to take care of itself, leave the shelter of the parent, and take its place in the whole global market.
The most important question is not how a free market operates but how we nurture the weakest in our world until they are strong enough to compete on equal terms in that free market.
The Greatest One Lesson You'll Ever Have December 24, 2009
B. Southwood (London, UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I studied economics for two years at A level, but my economics education really started when I discovered this book.
Economics in One Lesson is based on That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Not Seen, and in particular, a specific famous insight in Bastiat's essay, known as "The Broken Window Fallacy". This is the idea that a breaker of a window (or any other economic resource) should be praised because his destruction has actually spurred increased economic activity (for the glazier, his baker, butcher etc.). This is false because it ignores the other side of the "transaction". If the citizen whose window was broken wasn't broken, they would have spent the money elsewhere, and the exact same amount of economic activity would have occurred, albeit in slightly different spheres -- to boot, of course, society would be one window richer. Thus the destruction actually destroys economic wealth.
Hazlitt applies this to various socialist/interventionist policies (or proposed policies) of his day, and shows how these all actually reduce society's total wealth. Although this book wasn't written contemporaneously, all Hazlitt's analysis is extremely relevant today.
In short, I think everyone should read this book.
Other similar recommended books:
Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism (Politically Incorrect Guides)
One simple lesson November 15, 2009
Mariusz Skonieczny (Schaumburg, IL)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The authors who understand the subject really well are able to explain it in simple and easy to understand language. This is what I feel that this book is all about. The author explains the economy in one lesson: policies should take into consideration the long-term consequences as well as short-term, and they should consider the effects on all groups, not just few. Wow, so simple, but unfortunately this is not how our policy makers think.
I think that high school students should read this book before they enroll in economic courses that bore them to death with all the graphs and mathematical calculations. I really appreciate that this book is simple but to the point - even junior high school students would understand it. I highly recommend it.
- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market
Says all that needs to be said November 1, 2009
Ukyo Katayama (London, UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is a great introduction to economics. Hazlitt's writing is concise and devoid of academic jargon. Although much of this book was written sixty years ago - though he did add some new stuff in the late seventies - his lesson is still very relevant. Sadly, governments seem incapable of heeding this advice.
Opportunity cost is perhaps the central theme of this book, or the fact that there's no such thing as a free lunch. Every benefit governments choose to dole out on our behalf has a cost and needs to be paid for out of the proceeds of production. If more people took account of these hidden costs and long-term consequences we'd live in a better world.
Ecomomics for the Everyman March 24, 2009
Shane Slade (Sevenoaks, Surrey, England)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
For most of my life I have paid little attention to theoretical economics and I suspect this is true for most people. However the current disastrous financial dilemmas awoke my interest. I quickly came across the Austrian school of economists and Hazlitt can be classed with them. The writing here is succinct and non technical and full of common sense, a quality missing from almost all economists and politicians.
The economic theory advanced here is illustrative of a persuasive broader philosophy which argues against the interference of the state in our daily lives. I suggest that if this book is to your taste you explore his other works which (in the absence of availability on Amazon) can be obtained at the Ludwig Von Mises Institute in America with the other Austrian school writers.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
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