Replies

That will teach him more about Econ than 90% of the population.

One wouldn't need a very large book to have a more accurate understanding of economics than would be given by many larger tomes. A key is to recognize that the simplest rules of supply and demand are fundamental; more advanced economic theories often try to make it look as though those rules don't apply, but the rules still hold.

Another thing to bear in mind is that unlike matter and energy, real wealth can be created and destroyed, but it's a lot easier to create imaginary wealth than real wealth. It's possible for real wealth to be created by things like stock markets, if they cause resources to be allocated to more valuable uses than would otherwise be the case. On the other hand, unless one can look at a sequence of paper transactions and see where it improved the efficiency of resource allocation, odds are very good that any "wealth" it created was imaginary. During an economic boom, people destroy real wealth for the purpose of producing a larger quantity of imaginary wealth. The crash that follows doesn't destroy wealth--rather, it brings the needless destruction of wealth to a halt. Attempts to delay a crash don't protect real wealth; rather, they increase the amount of wealth that will get destroyed.

While some people claim government spending is good for the economy, that's wrong. Much of the money the government takes in the form of taxes, and nearly all of the money it borrows, represents wealth that would otherwise have been used for the purpose of generating more wealth. This is especially true when the government tries to "tax the rich"; such taxes tend to fall on those who direct a larger-than-average portion of their wealth toward productive enterprises (those who engage in such behavior are more likely to become rich than those who do not). Consequently, government spending largely serves to destroy wealth.

Finally, a few parting observations:

Once I was a liberal who believed that the rules of supply and demand say what happens without government intervention. Since then I've come to realize that they say what happens, period.
Government policies almost always have side-effects, which are often contrary to the stated purposes of the policies; in many cases, these side effects will exacerbate the problems the policies claim to "solve". Politicians claim the side-effects represent unforeseeable circumstances which justify expanding the effects of their policies. In reality, the side-effects of many policies are exactly what the rules of supply and demand would predict, but politicians somehow think their policies are supposed to be exempt.
Taxing something will cause society to produce less of it, and subsidizing something will cause society to produce more. Policies which tax wealth and subsidize poverty will cause society to produce wealth and more poverty.

Understanding economics may require reading more than could fit on a single page, but a small leaflet could contain more truth than is found in many larger economic texts.

Your 16 year old is lucky to have you for a mama. The job thing will kick in soon enough once your kid gets materialistic enough to want something you can't (or won't) afford.

Chick-Fil-A hired all three of my daughters. The oldest ran the whole gauntlet of interviews and training. Daughter #2 got them in abbreviated form. Daughter #3 was just asked when she could start when she came of age. The Mrs. and I did our Friday night dates there where all three were working.

Before we knew it, they had all graduated from high school and we were empty nesters. Chick-Fil-A, of course, wanted them back whenever they were home for the holidays. We still love the place!