Economics in One LessonThere are men regarded today as brilliant economists, who deprecate saving and recommend squandering on a national scale as the way of economic salvation; and when anyone points to what the consequences of these policies will be in the long run, they reply flippantly, as might the prodigal son of a warning father: “In the long run we are all dead.” And such shallow wisecracks pass as devastating epigrams and the ripest wisdom. . .
From this aspect, therefore, the whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson, and that lesson can be reduced to a single sentence. 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.
Who is your favorite conservative author, sparklite2?
And more: “Nine-tenths of the economic fallacies that are working such dreadful harm in the world today are the result of ignoring this lesson.”
My favorite conservative author(s) might be PJ O’Rourke or Tom Clancy. My favorite authors of any stripe might be Sinclair Lewis and Franz Kafka. What are yours?