Economics in One Lesson (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• Benjamin: Add a description of this character.
• Joe Smith
• Alvin
• Adam Smith

Quotes edit see section history

• “Economics, as we have now seen again and again, is a science or recognizing secondary consequences. It is also a science of seeing general consequences. It is the science of tracing the effects of some proposed or existing policy no only on some special interest in the short run, but on the general interest in the long run.”

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• The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.

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• But need is not demand. Effective economic demand requires not merely need but corresponding purchasing power.

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• Here we shall have to say simply that all government expenditures must eventually be paid out of the proceeds of taxation; that inflation itself is merely a form, and a particularly vicious form, of taxation.

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• This is only another way of saying that the government lenders will take risks with other people’s money (the taxpayers’) that private lenders will not take with their own money.

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• When the government makes loans or subsidies to business, what it does is to tax successful private business in order to support unsuccessful private business.

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• either immediately or ultimately every dollar of government spending must be raised through a dollar of taxation.

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• Wherever business was increased in one direction, it was (except insofar as productive energies were stimulated by a sense of want and urgency) correspondingly reduced in another.

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• The bad economist sees only what immediately strikes the eye; the good economist also looks beyond. The bad economist sees only the direct consequences of a proposed course; the good economist looks also at the longer and indirect consequences. The bad economist sees only what the effect of a given policy has been or will be on one particular group; the good economist inquires also what the effect of the policy will be on all groups.

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• In addition to these endless pleadings of self-interest, there is a second main factor that spawns new economic fallacies every day. This is the persistent tendency of men to see only the immediate effects of a given policy, or its effects only on a special group, and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be not only on that special group but on all groups. It is the fallacy of overlooking secondary consequences.

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• The proposal is frequently made that the government ought to assume the risks that are “too great for private industry.” This means that bureaucrats should be permitted to take risks with the taxpayers’ money that no one is willing to take with his own.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• United States
• America
• England

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Henry Hazlitt (Author)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 330

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Business & Investing › Popular Economics
• Books › Business & Investing › Economics