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A Conversation About Economics
Easy to read book bringing life to the science of economics for both the average person and possibly some added insight to even those who think they might know the subject. Reading this book will not make you an economics professor but it will help you to intelligently talk about economics. More importantly help you perform in your role as a citizen and a voter within a free enterprise economy.
- GenresEconomics
458 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2013
53 people are currently reading
154 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 13, 2016
This is a good, basic treatise on economic theory, but I was turned off by its obvious Libertarian bias and tendency to treat human beings as points on a scatter plot. The example of Adam's Island works well to examine basic concepts of demand and supply and market intervention, but the book too often strays into rants against the IRS and generational welfare (those willfully unproductive burrs in the perfect supply machine). There is a nod to economic inequality as unproductive friction and a welcome assertion that regulation is sometimes a necessary friction to rein in runaway capitalism, but too often I felt as if I were reading a supply side treatise from the 1980's or maybe the 1870's. There's very little empathy for the human condition and a real emphasis on "production" with little consideration of the role wages and demand play in our lives. Our role, it would seem is to drive down costs and increase productivity in a relentless competition to deliver product at the lowest price and highest quality. No apparent understanding that we are delivering these products to ourselves, and that it doesn't really matter how low prices go if we no longer have the means to purchase them.
As an example, consider the author's suggested remedy for the unemployment "problem". He suggests that we require unemployed citizens to provide 40 hours of labor each week to their neighborhood (10 hours to 4 neighbors). This requires the deadbeat to produce a social good, and surely the 4 neighbors would be happy to pay $50 a week for 10 hours of labor. This would reduce the tax burden on the rest of us since half of the unemployment would come from neighbors and would increase productivity overall. Working in social work as I do now, my first thought was of the rather large percentage of working poor who would consider $50 a week as a windfall and could not begin to pay that tab. My second thought was: "What would these people actually do?" I imagine lawn care and home maintenance and child care and maybe some organization. You know, things that busy people already pay other people to do, only without the insurance and certification and expertise that they would normally expect. To me, this concept would mainly create additional unemployment as service jobs are squeezed out, and resentment as working poor are forced to pay directly for their neighbor's crisis. The role of technology is only an afterthought, though it is, in fact, one of the major drivers of today's underemployment and wage suppression.
That said, this is a readable, often entertaining book so long as you recognize its limitations. If you want to understand supply-side thinking, this is a good start.
As an example, consider the author's suggested remedy for the unemployment "problem". He suggests that we require unemployed citizens to provide 40 hours of labor each week to their neighborhood (10 hours to 4 neighbors). This requires the deadbeat to produce a social good, and surely the 4 neighbors would be happy to pay $50 a week for 10 hours of labor. This would reduce the tax burden on the rest of us since half of the unemployment would come from neighbors and would increase productivity overall. Working in social work as I do now, my first thought was of the rather large percentage of working poor who would consider $50 a week as a windfall and could not begin to pay that tab. My second thought was: "What would these people actually do?" I imagine lawn care and home maintenance and child care and maybe some organization. You know, things that busy people already pay other people to do, only without the insurance and certification and expertise that they would normally expect. To me, this concept would mainly create additional unemployment as service jobs are squeezed out, and resentment as working poor are forced to pay directly for their neighbor's crisis. The role of technology is only an afterthought, though it is, in fact, one of the major drivers of today's underemployment and wage suppression.
That said, this is a readable, often entertaining book so long as you recognize its limitations. If you want to understand supply-side thinking, this is a good start.
January 9, 2022
Rock solid!
The author out a great deal of thought carefully explaining some tricky Economics concepts in a way that makes them understandable.
Sometimes a purely technical explanation does not convey the Gestalt of a concept. The author overcame this by using both clear and complete technical info and combining it with down-to-earth, common-sense illustrative examples.
The author out a great deal of thought carefully explaining some tricky Economics concepts in a way that makes them understandable.
Sometimes a purely technical explanation does not convey the Gestalt of a concept. The author overcame this by using both clear and complete technical info and combining it with down-to-earth, common-sense illustrative examples.
December 18, 2014
Great book to learn about the basic concepts of economics and to allow you to follow the economic discussions online and on the air everyday.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews