Spent a few years trying to figure out how Help people without trying to force businesses to do what’s right.
Anytime I hear a new fiscal policy or laws idea I can usually figure out if it’s going to work or cause problems
https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465...
https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465...
Thank you to user on Hacker News that suggested this book in a comment a few years ago. It was eye opening and one of the most important books I've ever read.
https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465...
Well meaning redistribution leads to lack of motivation. Why should I work hard if I get paid the same mentality. Leading to shortages.
Cruel competition causes people to work hard to produce the most goods with the least resources. Leading to surplus. Meaning poor people have access to far more now. So much so that historically poor people whom were skinny are now as fat as old world rich people. as food has gotten absurdly cheap.
This is a great primer for those completely unfamiliar: https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465...
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465...
> Until now. As covid and wildfire smoke have atomized us all into whatever living space we can afford, and into a grid of separate video boxes on a screen, the place as it was no longer exists. The forces that kept people here are temporarily gone. Through cratering rents San Francisco is finally proving to opponents of growth that supply and demand apply to housing too.
Intelligent people will twist themselves in knots trying to disprove basic economics. I see long threads on HN all the time of brilliant people convinced that supply and demand is just "far too simple" or "totally disproved" etc. etc.
This book is a classic https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465...
It's a fairly detailed book but it's worth the time. If you're too busy to read a whole book, you might want to take a look at "Economics in One Lesson" [2] by Herny Hazlitt.
The foundation for economic education[3] has some great articles too about economics and public choice.
[1]https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowel/dp/04650... [2] https://fee.org/media/14946/economicsinonelesson.pdf [3] https://fee.org
https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465...
He helped me grow beyond a cliche idealistic libertarian worldview into something much more practical and based in real world policy.
I highly recommend his 'Wealth, Poverty and Politics': https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Poverty-Politics-Thomas-Sowell...
Or for something more lightweight see his book 'Basic Economics': https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465... --- Despite it's name it's not an economics 101 guide, it basically a teaching-through-example guide by listing policy after policy that were implemented in the realworld, for ex:
- rent control in NYC/Toronto in the 1970s which severely reduced access to affordable housing, disincentivized building maintenance, incentivized arson, and gave countless upper/middle class residents cheap rent for beautiful properties
- various industry licensing pushed by market incumbents not protecting consumers, such as interior designers requiring 4yr bachelors degree to choose the colorscheme of an apartment
- etc, etc
He digs into their good intentions but unintentional self-defeating side-effects. Many of which have countless analogies to today (see Uber vs Black cabs in London).
After reading it I'm hardly surprised Japan's economy has stagnated, to the point where it's almost so obvious it saddens me. They are one of the worst proponents of the type of heavy handed economic-intervention he critiques.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465...
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465... [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Sowell
https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465...
But the book itself was written before he became controversial, is VERY readable and approachable, and I would particularly recommend it if you have already tried to learn economics before and stopped because you could not stand the sheer tedium.
Also, the other commenters are right about how the stuff you read in microeconomics simply wouldn't scale to macro (so don't expect it to help you invest and stuff).
[0] https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465...