Economics In One Lesson

This was the first book I read on economics, and still find it to be a great starting place for economic studies. What say you?

I actually re-read it a couple months ago. This may sound surprising, but it influenced me most on the subject of immigration policy. Previously, I had been kind of iffy on the subject. I recognized that government barriers to the movement of labor were harmful in some ways, but I was worried that a policy of totally open borders would lead to unemployment, Americans losing their job, a decline in wages for working folks, and so forth. Then I realize that most of the same arguments used by Hazlitt in favor of free trade apply to immigration as well. I was already a free trader, so it only took a slight nudge by Hazlitt to put down the path to contemplating the possibility of free immigration.

I get something new out of Economics in One Lesson every time I read it.

Agreed. Hazlitt's tone is superb. He never comes off as arrogant or preachy. He approaches each myth/fallacy with a degree of respect and caution, not simply attempting to logically reduce them to contradiction, but to determine the logic of why they are accepted to begin with and even to empathize with the sentiment. Many of the other authors in the Austrian vein fail to understand the greatness of such a style. Thus, they struggle to achieve as wide an audience as Hazlitt. I also liked how Hazlitt acknowledged a slightly more utilitarian ethics than most libertarians generally allow. I'm not saying Hazlitt was a utilitarian over a libertarian, only that he at least recognized the pain of others and sympathized with it, whether it was caused unjustly or not. Specifically I'm referring to his section on how technology causes unemployment. It was nice to see him at least extend sympathy to some people, even if he believed their suffering was not caused by injustice or even poor economic decision-making.

It's definitely a great one to recommend to curious individuals. Robert Wenzel of EconomicPolicyJournal.com thinks that Peter & Andrew Schiff's new book How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes is a better introduction, and he'd recommend Economics in One Lesson as a supplement.

Agreed... he really does touch on just about everything, and gets straight to the point :)

I also read and liked "Economics in One Lesson". "Economics for Real People" by Gene Callahan is a virtual tie with Hazlitt for me. Link to free PDF download here. http://mises.org/resources/2031 I'm looking forward to comparing them both to the new copy of "How an Economy Grows" by Schiff that I just received.

that book by Schiff sounds popular, though I know little about it. Maybe i'll check it out if I ever finish the pile of books on my shelf, lol. Thanks for the PDF, I appreciate it!

does anyone know how to start a group?

I'm curious about Peter Schiff's new book. If it's as good as Irwin's comic version, it is a must buy. For those who have not yet read the comic, here is the link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/8009736/Irwin-Schiff-How-an-Economy-Grows-and-Why-It-Doesnt Callahan's book looks good, but it seems lengthy for an intro. I've always wanted something like 50 pages or less, text or pictoral, that could clearly convince people that economic laws exist that government has no power over.

Economics in One Lesson is the book I point people towards usually. 

I've just read Peter Schiff's new book and it is excellent.  Very closely based on his father's story and drawings, but with a wider scope, more text, and the sequence of the story is more closely related to historical developments.  

I may well start recommending Schiff's book as much as I recommend Hazlitt's. 

Thank you so much for posting the link to the Peter Schiff comic. I haven't read the Hazlitt book yet but I intend to start it Monday. I finished Road to Serfdom last week and it was great. I planned on making Economics in One Lesson the next book, and you've got me convinced. Will following it up with the Peter Schiff book help me understand things better?

The comic is actually by irwin schiff, peter's father. I have not yet had the chance to read peter's book, but I guess it depends upon what you are looking for. Peter supports the Austrian school, but he's not exactly an economist, and he sometimes puts himself at odds with Austrian School principles. But he definitely knows the basics and his style is great - it's very down to Earth and frequently provides good analogies. Callahan's Economics for Real People seems the most basic yet it definitely tries to fully explain the Austrian position, including methodology. It is like a Man, Economy, and State for the non-student, although I haven't read into it very far yet. Economics in one lesson is good, but it's not really an explanation of economics to me. It's more like a guide to why everything the gov't does decreases economy. It is really good, however. You'd find ANY of the above an EASY read after Road to Serfdom. Great book, but the language is sometimes quite obtuse.

Hazlitt's classic is an excellent place to start. To his credit, he has a writer's touch being a professional journalist. Far better than those trashy textbooks used for Micro/Macro Economics courses in college. For me, economics should be much more than models and formulas (econometrics). However, many schools present it as a drab application of mathematics with a bit of Keynesian orthodoxy. Anyone agree? Mises' Human Action does it for me, but I'll admit that those philosophy courses I took at a Jesuits uni really helps cut through the density.

I took an economics class in high school, and the only thing I remember is learning how to fill out a 1040 for the IRS. So according to my high school, economics means paying taxes. Very surprising considering my high school otherwise promoted free thought - it was a private catholic school. The course was an elective (blow-off), but you would have thought we'd at least have learned marginal utility or something. I didn't have any interest in economics since that experience until Ron Paul started talking about Mises, and I went to this site. Economics in One Lesson was the first book I read, and I loved it and have lent it to many others since.