These are important books but obviously not a comprehensive list. * John Locke's Two Treatises of Government - It's political philosophy but it's hard to understand Classical Liberalism without having read some Locke. * Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations - He and Locke are the two main guys to read for a solid start on Classical Liberalism, which is completely different than modern political liberalism. It's like having two features in an app with nearly the same name. Confusing as fuck. * E. F. Schumacher's Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered - This book will shift your…
I'd say that most of the distinction between books and blogs / other online writing is about the process and result rather than of the physical form of the product itself, though that has some bearing (see my recent comments elsewhere in this thread). If you're familiar with the literature on writing itself --- fiction or nonfiction --- what becomes clear is how books are crafted. There's the idea, often research, organisation of notes and the like, writing itself, and then very often many, many, many rounds of editing and proofing, which go towards a result which ideally reads well, is…
Cheers Daniel. I suppose we could argue this point. But... my reading of Smith is that he is describing the world as it is at his time. A lot of mid-sized agricultural enterprises, in a world transitioning from feudal privilege to private ownership. A smaller (but very interesting) industry, also transitioning from the guild system to a more modern system. Here's a semi-random example from a chapter on wager labour: "When an independent workman, such as a weaver or shoemaker, has got more stock than what is sufficient to purchase the materials of his own work, and to maintain himself till…
I am as far left as we go in France but that's a recurrent leftist criticism that I keep seeing and that I think is really misguided. I do think that right-wing libertarians are wrong because they have a much simplified model of the world, that does not take into account all that you mention. Scientists use simple models because they have technical constraints. Even more so for game designers who have to make a fun game while staying a bit realistic. They are biased, but not politically: they are biased technically, toward models that present a simplified model of the world that can be…
Speaking of stupid efficiencies: “In the progress of the division of labour, the employment of the far greater part of those who live by labour, that is, of the great body of people, comes to be confined to a few very simple operations, frequently one or two. But the understandings of the greater part of men are necessarily formed by their ordinary employments. The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects too are, perhaps, always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding,or to exercise his invention in…
I said "economics", as in the theory or ideas, not "economies", as in countries. What I was somewhat sloppily referring to was the classical liberal ideas based on writings of Adam Smith (who's mentioned in the article), David Hume, John Locke etc. As opposed to the Marxist view I guess. And I said it because the article argues somewhat (in)directly that management gets paid well because of position of power and luck, not merit, that free markets don't work, and throws around words like libertarianism, meritocracy etc., but makes no solid economic arguments, it's explained more from a point…
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Chap. XI, Part III, "Rent of Land: Conclusion" Subtitle: "but the interest of those who live by profit has not the same connexion with the general interest of society" > "His employers constitute the third order, that of those who live by profit. it is the stock that is employed for the sake of profit, which puts into motion the greater part of the useful labor of every society. The plans and projects of the employers of stock regulate and direct all the most important operations of labor, and profit is the end proposed by all those plans and projects.…
Any discussion of economic growth policy in China immediately reminds me of my first visit to China, in 1982, when very little economic growth had happened for about three decades. Going from the United States to Taiwan earlier in that same year gave me a whole new appreciation of what "poor" means. But then going from Taiwan as it was in 1982 to Guangzhou (via Hong Kong) the same year even more more starkly showed me what real poverty looks like. China's economic growth model of the most recent thirty years has been very consciously patterned on the growth model of Taiwan that began in the…
> If any of them thought about the social implications of their activities, whether it was predatory lending, abusive credit card practices, or market manipulation, they might have taken comfort that, in accordance with Adam Smith’s dictum, their swelling bank accounts implied that they must be boosting social welfare. Stiglitz is doing violence to Adam Smith here, an author I suspect he has not re-read in a long time. This quote from Stiglitz would more appropriately reference J.M. Keynes rather than Adam Smith. To wit, Keynes wrote in the General Theory: > It is better that a man should…
"In the progress of the division of labour, the employment of the far greater part of those who live by labour, that is, of the great body of the people, comes to be confined to a few very simple operations, frequently to one or two. But the understandings of the greater part of men are necessarily formed by their ordinary employments. The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations, of which the effects are perhaps always the same, or very nearly the same, has no occasion to exert his understanding or to exercise his invention in finding out expedients for removing…