Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.11 AVERAGE
4.11 AVERAGE
I’m a longtime follower of Sowell’s incisive and prescient newspaper columns, but somehow I’d managed never to read any of his books until relatively recently.
In the pages of Basic Economics, he unlocks the mysteries of the marketplace in ways that anyone could understand, bringing the complexities of the “dismal science” into principles that every voter should bring to bear on their elected officials.
If more people would read and take to heart these lessons, the populace might never again elect someone whose political platform includes any form of government tampering with domestic and international markets.
In the pages of Basic Economics, he unlocks the mysteries of the marketplace in ways that anyone could understand, bringing the complexities of the “dismal science” into principles that every voter should bring to bear on their elected officials.
If more people would read and take to heart these lessons, the populace might never again elect someone whose political platform includes any form of government tampering with domestic and international markets.
In his pursuit to "drive the point home", Tomas Sowell might be a bit repetitive, nevertheless, I really liked it as an introduction to Economic Principles and most importantly to cognitive biases.
challenging
informative
medium-paced
I think it’s probably a good book for explaining it.
but I still don’t get it and feel like the economy is just fake and we are playing along sorry lol
but I still don’t get it and feel like the economy is just fake and we are playing along sorry lol
challenging
informative
slow-paced
I actually couldn’t finish this. There were a few chapters that were helpful in overall understanding and then it became a gushy love letter to the religion of Free-market capitalism. It lost me when it argued against child labor laws. If you want a manifesto to to back up all conservative economics policies then this is it. If your looking for a nuanced take on various issue then not so much.
I listened to this book and I had to stop around 4-hour mark. The author clearly wants the reader to believe that free market and unregulated capitalism is the solution to all problems. In order to convince the reader of his point, he brings up a bunch of anecdotal evidence and carefully-selected instances where free market worked brilliantly, while completely ignoring instances where it failed (healthcare and price gouging would be one example of that; we will get to that later).
I was listening to the latest edition of the book and the author completely disregards 2007-2008 financial disaster and the great economic recession that ensued. The author states that financial losses are just as important as victories in a capitalist society because it allows us to weed out failed business and institutions from the successful ones. Then, why the hell did the government dump $700 billion of the taxpayers money to buy out toxic assets of said failed institutions? Isn't the US supposed to be the beacon of free and unregulated capitalist society? It seems like we have socialism for the rich, while the majority of us get to taste the shit fruit of capitalism. You're poor? Too bad - pull yourself up by your bootstraps and work harder.
Somewhere in the beginning, the author brings up another example that truly irritated me. Apparently, the citizens of Great Britain have to wait a long time to get surgeries, while the Americans wait 3-4 months, which is not long at all in comparison to the rest of the world. Then, he tries to build a case why socializing healthcare is a horrible idea. Again, he mainly uses anecdotal evidence to convince the reader in his beliefs. What he completely fails to state is that many of Americans choose not to get elective surgeries because they can't afford them. Getting a surgery often means going completely bankrupt to many folks, so if it's not a life/death situation many people just choose to ignore and live in discomfort/pain. Obviously, if the surgery is absolutely required to survive, some of us go for it and if we're lucky and have a decent, overpriced insurance we end up not spending astronomical amounts of cash out of our pocket. The rest are unfortunately burdened with a hospital bill they will probably never be able to fully pay off. Perhaps, that could be the contributing factor as to why there are longer waiting times to get elective surgeries in Great Britan, Mr. Sowell? Is it maybe that people are willing to wait a bit longer and get that surgery, rather than get a surgery and go bankrupt while doing so?
In the first 4 hours of listening, there was one idea I strongly agreed with and that idea is free rent prices are better than set rent prices. I believe that allowing the market to decide the prices for rent (and most things in life) is a better idea than having some governor decide a set price for housing. It's an argument that is easy to build. It's a much harder task to argue the benefits of free market in healthcare - an industry where scarcity of resources (which Mr. Sowell loves to bring up so much) is, more than often, self-generated by the greed of Big Pharma (there are countless examples of that, Martin Shkreli probably being the most famous one).
It's a terrible book. Sowell clearly has an agenda and in order to accomplish his goal, he's ignoring facts and evidence, whilst suspending critical thinking. This here is nothing more than a marketing job in order to sell us free market and unchecked capitalism.
I was listening to the latest edition of the book and the author completely disregards 2007-2008 financial disaster and the great economic recession that ensued. The author states that financial losses are just as important as victories in a capitalist society because it allows us to weed out failed business and institutions from the successful ones. Then, why the hell did the government dump $700 billion of the taxpayers money to buy out toxic assets of said failed institutions? Isn't the US supposed to be the beacon of free and unregulated capitalist society? It seems like we have socialism for the rich, while the majority of us get to taste the shit fruit of capitalism. You're poor? Too bad - pull yourself up by your bootstraps and work harder.
Somewhere in the beginning, the author brings up another example that truly irritated me. Apparently, the citizens of Great Britain have to wait a long time to get surgeries, while the Americans wait 3-4 months, which is not long at all in comparison to the rest of the world. Then, he tries to build a case why socializing healthcare is a horrible idea. Again, he mainly uses anecdotal evidence to convince the reader in his beliefs. What he completely fails to state is that many of Americans choose not to get elective surgeries because they can't afford them. Getting a surgery often means going completely bankrupt to many folks, so if it's not a life/death situation many people just choose to ignore and live in discomfort/pain. Obviously, if the surgery is absolutely required to survive, some of us go for it and if we're lucky and have a decent, overpriced insurance we end up not spending astronomical amounts of cash out of our pocket. The rest are unfortunately burdened with a hospital bill they will probably never be able to fully pay off. Perhaps, that could be the contributing factor as to why there are longer waiting times to get elective surgeries in Great Britan, Mr. Sowell? Is it maybe that people are willing to wait a bit longer and get that surgery, rather than get a surgery and go bankrupt while doing so?
In the first 4 hours of listening, there was one idea I strongly agreed with and that idea is free rent prices are better than set rent prices. I believe that allowing the market to decide the prices for rent (and most things in life) is a better idea than having some governor decide a set price for housing. It's an argument that is easy to build. It's a much harder task to argue the benefits of free market in healthcare - an industry where scarcity of resources (which Mr. Sowell loves to bring up so much) is, more than often, self-generated by the greed of Big Pharma (there are countless examples of that, Martin Shkreli probably being the most famous one).
It's a terrible book. Sowell clearly has an agenda and in order to accomplish his goal, he's ignoring facts and evidence, whilst suspending critical thinking. This here is nothing more than a marketing job in order to sell us free market and unchecked capitalism.
I would recommend this introduction to anyone who wants to learn the basics of economics in order to be a better informed citizen. It doesn't use technical jargon, but outlines basic principles clearly and in plain language, without graphs or equations, using real life examples. Sowell is obviously annoyed by the general ignorance of economics experienced by your average person, particularly by journalists and even politicians, and he sets out to make the basics clear. The basic principles he outlines are true of any economy--whether capitalist, socialist, communist, or mixed—but he also goes on to show how specific economic policies work (or don't work) in specific contexts. Most importantly, he encourages "the reader to look at economic policies and economic systems in terms of the incentives they create, rather than simply the goals that they proclaim. This means that consequences matter more than intentions—and not just the immediate consequences. The longer run repercussions of any economic policy need to be considered by the public, especially because so many public officials may not look beyond the next election." He shows how politicians may pursue economically counterproductive policies to gain the votes of two separate groups of people, and he shows how government economic policy can breed shortages, increase the cost of oil and food, and cause the quality of products to decline.
This served as a good refresher for me as someone who majored in economics and reads books dealing with economics but who has not taken a class in the subject in years. It is certainly the most readable yet thorough introduction to Economics I have encountered.
This served as a good refresher for me as someone who majored in economics and reads books dealing with economics but who has not taken a class in the subject in years. It is certainly the most readable yet thorough introduction to Economics I have encountered.