I hope you didn't take my email the wrong way, I guess I was trying to add some sarcasm. I still would like to meet up for a beer some night and discuss FDR, but several other items too. A big question that I have is, why do some countries force their style of government/economy on others, e.g., democracy/capitalism has historically fought with communism/socialism. Why do these countries care? Why don't they worry about their own people?
I would also like to add to my reading list. I believe I mentioned to you before that a buddy at church gave me a list of reading recommendations, some of them matched your book reports on your website, and yet a third source provided me with similar matches so I'm thinking these are good books to read:
I'm also considering Economics in One Lesson
. I took a basic Econ class as a freshman in college but I dont remember a whole lot about it and I'm thinking I need a refresher. I borrowed the text book from my hallmate to save money so I dont have anything to recall. I've heard Animal Farm
is a good book too. Maybe that will help me answer my previous questions. My friend also recommended a lot of books by Larry Schweikart
, but some of his titles have me concerned I'll be getting a biased opinion. I want to read objective opinions, not biased.
. I took a basic Econ class as a freshman in college but I dont remember a whole lot about it and I'm thinking I need a refresher. I borrowed the text book from my hallmate to save money so I dont have anything to recall. I've heard Animal Farm is a good book too. Maybe that will help me answer my previous questions. My friend also recommended a lot of books by Larry Schweikart, but some of his titles have me concerned I'll be getting a biased opinion. I want to read objective opinions, not biased.Anyway, maybe if our schedules permit we could grab a beer late next week (I'm just getting over a cold) and have a discussion.
Enrico
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Enrico,
We really need to get together. The books and authors you express interest in are excellent resources, and the questions you raise are excellent. I love this stuff and it rarely occurs that someone I know expresses interest in it.
The Federalist Papers
are a tremendous insight into what the Constitution was designed to do.Hayek's Road to Serfdom
is a classic--a must read.Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom
I read for the first time just a couple years ago and is another good one.And Economics in One Lesson
is a great book. It should be taught in every high school and in every Econ 101 college course. I was considering rereading it and posting several thoughts on it on the site. It is most likely a good thing you do not remember much from your college econ 101 course; at the risk of sounding flippant, it was probably not worth remembering. That is, if it were like the one I took many years ago.It is a good thing you're after objective insights. So much of what we hear from "economists" is thinly-veiled partisan cheerleading. They have a progressive, statist agenda and wrap economic "insights" around it in order to give it some public validity. One important aspect of the "Austrian Economists" school of thought is that economics is the study of human action and interaction, therefore an objective study of society and civilization. Why, for example, were the vast majority of humans destined to lives of hand-to-mouth poverty for thousands of recorded history right up to the Industrial Revolution, then almost instantly (from an historical point of view) the standard of living leaped forward to what we enjoy today?
What's the reason for all this progress and leisure time that allows for human cultivation, the arts, etc. Line workers can come home to heated and lit homes to spend hours not concerned how they will feed their families. (I learned a love of reading from my father who worked for 35 years in an aluminum plant. He came home and cultivated a family, always eager to discover life through books.) The answer to that question comes down to the central theme of human freedom. Whenever and wherever some of us are free enough to provide what the rest of us need an want, human civilization prospers. Whenever and wherever humans are less free, they are concomitantly less prosperous. It sounds un-sophisticatedly simple, but history and facts are stubborn things. (As John Adams would say.)
That's a long-winded way of responding to your desire to go after non-biased opinions. Frankly, the Austrian school and similar economists and thinkers are interested in the bare historical record and understanding and explaining why things are the way they are. Yes, they have an opinion but that opinion is rooted in a good-faith effort to get to the truth of the matter, not the creation of truth outside of what we can gather from history, human nature, and empirical evidence. The socialists have never been so interested. They have opinions, but theirs are opinions rooted in speculations drummed up by Marx, seemingly out of thin air. Starting with Marx and Engels, they from the outset have been interested in rewriting history and imposing upon society their vision and philosophy of how the world works. They are interested in having some of us (government authorities and their elitist "intellectual" apologists) plan and control what the rest of us can and cannot do with our time, capital, labor, energies, all in order to control and shape society into an image of their choosing. I've found anyone affected in the least with this thought will from the outset not be interested in unbiased reporting of history and events.
This brings me to more book suggestions: Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions
lays out this split in world visions starting with the Renaissance right up to today (1995 when the book was published). The Vision of The Anointed
is another one of his dealing with this issue. And his latest, Intellectuals and Society 
is sort of a summation of all his thoughts on the elitist statists mentality and the pro-freedom, we-don't-know-everything-so-This is a very long e-mail but I would be remiss if I were to not recommend Ludwig von Mises' Liberalism: The Classical Tradition
. If I had to recommend three pieces of literature for a rebirth of freedom to society they would be 1) this book, 2) Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson, and 3) the US Constitution w/ the Declaration of Independence. Mises also writes clearly and spares the reader all the jargon. We have to get together! This weekend is out, unfortunately. I'll check about some things and maybe one night this week?
Adam
