| Basic Economics 3rd Ed: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy
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This completely revised and updated third edition of Thomas Sowell's instrumental work includes a new chapter on government finance. Basic Economics is a citizen's guide to economics--for those who want to understand how the economy works but have no interest in jargon or equations. Sowell reveals the general principles behind any kind of economy--capitalist, socialist, feudal, and so on. In readable language, he shows how to critique economic policies in terms of the incentives they create, rather than the goals they proclaim. With clear explanations of the entire field, from rent control and the rise and fall of businesses to the international balance of payments, this is the first book for anyone who wishes to understand how the economy functions.
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- ISBN13: 9780465002603- Condition: New
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By fred
Except for gummy stickers in several places on these books, they were in excellent condition (5 stars without the tags). For a good quality hard bound book, the price was very good.
By Daily Reckoning (Baltimore, MD, USA)
It's easy to draw inspiration from the book, Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. The most striking thing about this book is that it is written in plain English - no small thing for an economics text. Sowell does it the old-fashioned way, using analogies and word pictures to explain complex concepts in simple fashion. No pie graphs or multicolor charts, no heavy reliance on statistics or data points. Just good old logic and reasoning.
Not that there is anything wrong with numbers, graphics or visuals. They certainly have their time and place, and I am happy to make use of them. But for some discussions, unadorned logic works better. A good argument is one you can understand, letting you take it or leave it. In contrast, numbers can be manipulated, data points stretched and statistics tortured to say what we'd prefer them to say. (All you have to do is check the consumer price index to see that this is true.) The one time I saw Sowell speak in person, he offered a great one-liner that captured the tricky nature of statistics. "Have you heard the one," he said to the crowd, "about the statistician that drowned in a lake with an average depth of only 2 feet." That captures the point nicely I think. I try to maintain a Sowell-style reliance on plain English in my writing.
Review from Agora Financial, publisher of economic and financial analysis including Financial Reckoning Day Fallout: Surviving Today's Global Depression, The New Empire of Debt: The Rise and Fall of an Epic Financial Bubble, and I.O.U.S.A.: One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt.
By GT (Alaska)
Just as advertised, economics explained in simple terms and logical analysis with examples and historical references. A great read. He compares classic models, modern variants and their results and social consequences.
By Glenn Pavlovic
This book will make your brain hurt. But mostly because it makes your rethink everything you have ever thought you knew about economics. Sowell starts with the definition that economics is the study of what happens when you "allocate scarce resources which have alternate uses." From there he goes on to demonstrate the complex ways in which this seemingly simple statement can be applied.
By Alan Dale Daniel (St. George, UT, USA)
I have always enjoyed reading Thomas Sowell. He has the ability to make the difficult seem easy. Of course, as he points out in Basic Economics, the concepts may seem easy, but they are being misapplied all around us. How hard is it to understand that high prices attract resources? Yet, many states have laws against selling anything at a higher price during an emergency. They don't want people price gouged. But wait a minute, if the prices went up the higher prices would attract resources to the area where such resources were most needed. Instead, few resources are attracted to the emergency because of the pricing laws and the folks needlessly suffer.
The more the government tries to rationalize the economy, the worse it makes the economy. What they think ought to happen seldom happens. Thomas Sowell gives the best arguments for a hands off the economy approach to government. I think he is correct. Let the market make the decisions. It has worked since 1776, but somehow that isn't good enough for a lot of people. People always think they are smarter than the market, or the market is somehow evil. But people are not smarter than the market, they do not have more knowledge, and the market is not evil or unfair. Only people and governments can be evil or unfair. A free market is neither.
In my book The Super Summary of World History (Revised) I argue that Marxism and socialism think that free market results are evil because some prosper greatly and others suffer. Marx argues from a position of economic determinism that once capitalism is dead a wonderful new world will replace it. Capitalism caused evil because, Marx thought, everything flows from the economic system - literally. If the economic system changed so would the people. Thus, Marxism would change human nature, and with Marx's new economic system man would become a new person that would be free from capitalist's greed and fear. I say human nature does not change its basics and Marx was a dreamer. I believe Sowell would agree.
Socialism does not go as far as Marx; however, I think socialism still relies on the death of capitalism to build a new world. Once the evil of capitalism is gone a new world will bloom because people will have more equality. Socialism aims at achieving equality by equalizing results. Not equalizing effort mind you, just results. The theory is that society exists before the person is born and every person is born into society which has schools, roads, businesses, money supplies and whatnot which all contribute to a person's success or failure; thus, ever failure is a failure of the group, and every success is a success of the group. Anyone who fails must be brought up to the group average as his failure is the failure of all and the responsibility of all. Also, one's success is the success of all; thus, the successful person owes society a large amount of his money and property to bring him down to the average of all the rest. I think this is both unfair and unwise. The failure or success of one is not the failure or success of all, and equality does not stem from demanding equal results no matter what the effort or insight.
Basic Economics makes hash out of the Marxist and socialist theories. Knowledge is not something given out by society in neat little schoolbook packages. The knowledge is there for all to acquire most times, but key insights are not. Only by giving those with insight great rewards can we advance as a nation and a world. If the rewards are the same for everyone why take any risks? The risk takers often fail, and in fact they fail more often than they succeed. Only great rewards can justify taking great risks. Also, if all are rewarded the same, then how can we tell if one idea is better than another? Only the flow of money tells us what is a really good idea vs a poor one. To change successfully takes risks and insight, and to measure whether the change is good or bad takes an empirical way to measure the value of a product or service. The flow of money is that empirical measurement of value. This all flows easily from T. Sowell's insights.
I love the book.
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