Free market capitalism coordinates every stage of every production desired by consumers as if by magic. Knowing Austrian economics will allow you to see which public policies are disastrous to this productivity. Unintended consequences, opportunity cost, and pricing theory are fundamental concepts to explain human action.
Money originates by free markets via barter and gold and silver, not by governments via fiat. A story of Halloween candy demonstrates this. The double coincidence of wants is solved by money. Money that will last will be six things: generally marketable, divisible, high value per unit weight (portable), durable, recognizable, and homogeneous.
Recycling happens naturally when there is market demand for waste items like plastic, paper, metal or glass, but mandated recycling does more harm than good. When do you know that recycling is worthy? You know when some person or business asks to buy your particular waste from you, not when some authority forces you to recycle.
Understanding economics helps you see history better. American workers, although only lightly unionized, were more productive than others. All high standards of living are due to free markets. Governments destroy this.
“The Candlemakers’ Petition” is a well known satire of protectionism written and published in 1845, as part of Bastiat
From Chapter I of The Bastiat Collection: Volume I. Pages 1-48 in the text. Read by Josiah Schmidt.
An introductory economics seminar presented by Bill Peterson and Bob Luddy.
Murray Rothbard was the master of reducing complicated theories to their very essence while retaining theoretical rigor, and this 1969 essay is a case in point.
