Economics for Boys and Girls

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

Time and again we have been asked to devise economic instruction for the youngsters, the thought being that it’s the oncoming generation that counts. And, just as often, we have shaken our heads, pleading ignorance of how to go about it.

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 16:18

Do pride and a haughty spirit dispose man to act against himself? Are these weaknesses responsible for the strife amongst ourselves, our repeated invasions of others’ rights, political coercion, the policy of armed conflict as a corrective for social ills, the subsidizing with extorted funds of weaknesses and failures, the mass slaughter of our kind? The decline and fall of nations?

Prepared by Vernelia A. Crawford

The letter “n” following a figure refers to a footnote.

A

Aladdin’s lamp, 98

Alibis, 132

Altruism, 118

Americanism, 15

Animal behavior, 176, 184

Ardrey, Robert, 132, 177

Aristotle, 149, 165

Art, 101, 149

Atheism, 16

Athens, 149, 150, 165

Authoritarianism, 3, 17, 81, 127, 146

Automation, 36, 57

B

Bastiat, Frederic, 50, 79n, 90n

Bates, Marston, 176n

The Ludwig von Mises Institute is dedicated to advancing the Austrian School of economics and libertarian scholarship. Founded in 1982, the Institute defends individual liberty, the free market, private property, sound money, and peace. Its broad range of teaching programs, fellowships, publications, and conferences is supported by voluntary donations.

Copyright 1951, by Leonard E. Read. Printed in U.S.A. Permission to reprint granted without special request. Single copy: Fifty cents.

Digital edition by the Ludwig von Mises Institute 2013

eISBN: 978-1-61016-608-9

The substance for a thorough-going. Twentieth Century intellectual revolution is in the making, and is showing a vitality that can be accounted for only by the inextinguishable spirit of individualism—the insistence of man to complete his own creation. That this spirit at present is evident among only a minority need not necessarily deject the devotee of liberty. Everything begins with a minority of one, extends to a few, and then to many.

Editor’s Note

Leonard Read is a member of The Foundation staff. He is the author of Students of Liberty, Penalty of Surrender, On That Day Began Lies, and Pattern for Revolt.

LEONARD E. READ

THE FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION, INC.

IRVINGTON-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK 1951

A Growing Danger

There were six hundred at the banquet. Not less than a total of 10,000 years of formal education had gone into the makeup of these people to whom a distinguished American addressed himself. The speaker—informed, intelligent, and courageous, and manifesting the deep convictions which he felt—told of the growing dangers of socialism and communism. He documented his statements. He named names. The dangers were real, all right. The speech was received with obvious approval.