Reddit reviews Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School

I just think it's hilarious people are downvoting you for reading.

> HE'S READING THE WRONG THINGS! GET HIM!

While EIOL is a good illustration of Bastiat's writings on the "unseen" - if you want to go with a good overview of all economics (ricardian preference, opportunity cost, Keynesian critiques, SxD curves, indirect vs. direct trade, all among the many things covered) ... it's hard to do better than Economics for Real People for an intro book. It focuses on what a free market type person would want to stress for you, so you'll get a good insight into what they think is important ... plus it's dead easy to read, being written just for someone like yourself.

http://www.amazon.com/Economics-Real-People-Gene-Callahan/dp/0945466412/

http://books.google.com/books?id=ojknjZJYgWsC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb

Choose Gene Callahan's

Econ intro for "real people"

Here at amazon

>when I refer to something being better or more efficient, I mean it towards society as a whole and not the individual.

This troubles me. All value is subjective; the best we can do is observe an individual choice and know the individual preferred (ex ante) the one over the others. It's not clear to me what calculus you would use to determine, ex ante, whether "society" was better off.

>Also, I assume the human is not a completely rational organism...

I just want to note that "rational" means multiple things. Colloquially, it's a rather muddled term, generally meaning a choice the speaker might make for themselves. Economists have a more precise meaning. More on this distinction here.

>... there has yet to exist a truly universal economic system that would benefit everyone in the same way.

And I would go further and say such a system is impossible. Individual subjective preferences are too varied from one another, and too inconsistent. I would argue that emergent systems such as the price/market process do a better job of approaching that ideal than imposed systems.

>My problem with Capitalism...

I understand your concerns, but I dislike using the term "capitalism." For more on this, see here.

As to the concerns themselves, I would urge you to pick up this book. It's not exhaustive, but it will at least expose you to the "free-market" positions in a well-argued way. I'm sure someone else can recommend a primer for the opposing views.

Read Rothbard's "Man, Economy and State" if your really serious.

For a less thorough and rigorous introduction, but an easier read, I'd say Callahan's "Economics for Real People".

pdf

amazon