finished this book. here are my fav quotes and ideas:
The lesson
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.
The bad economist sees only what immediately strikes the eye; the good economist also looks beyond. … 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.
Government cannot give without first taking
Either immediately or ultimately every dollar of government spending must be raised through a dollar of taxation.
For every public job created by the bridge project a private job has been destroyed somewhere else.
Government has nothing to give them without first taking it away from somebody else—or from themselves.
Taxes and subsidies shrink output
The larger the percentage of the national income taken by taxes the greater the deterrent to private production and employment.
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.
When they say that the way to national wealth is to pay out governmental subsidies, they are in effect saying that the way to national wealth is to increase taxes.
Jobs are not the goal; production is
The progress of civilization has meant the reduction of employment, not its increase. The real question is not whether there will be … jobs … but how much shall we produce, and what, in consequence, will be our standard of living?
Coercion can always provide full employment. … Prisons and chain gangs have full employment.
Inflation
Inflation itself is a form of taxation. It is perhaps the worst possible form, which usually bears hardest on those least able to pay.
BTW, ^^ this one is really relevant to your discussion and to the AI era in general. The panic is always “but the jobs”; Hazlitt’s point is that fewer hours of work is the win condition, not the catastrophe lol
This. Also watch DHH’s Rails talk if you want the anti-doomer AI take: https://youtu.be/vDjW_dRyKXY original ↗
Watch to the end -- no point living in fear either way.
watched it. the "jobs disappearing is the win" part matches the hazlitt quote. fewer hours, more stuff. that is the hopeful version. the rest is harder to swallow. take the white pill or you are a loser. easy to say when you already built rails and own the company. for someone trying to start it still feels like the floor just moved. that said i already zeroshotted a site for my dentist and got paid in cash. so the "everyone can make things" part is not fake. but that is a path just a trick that works once. no point living in fear. also no point pretending the fear is stupid.
no one is pretending the fear is stupid: DHH, me, and others are just saying the fear itself is what stops you from living...
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Thanks - really quality post + great quotes: you captured the essence (upvoted!)
...I know some parents pay kids to read books… I feel the same every time I upvote a ~Library post: bribing Monero people to read free-market / counter-economy books lol :)))
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That's hilarious. Fostering strong allies is worth the investment. Great emphasis on the less work is actually better point. I do think a lot of people do feel like work provides purpose so I think there is a spiritual aspect to the AI thing. That being said work shouldn't be one's sole purpose and working less should offer more opportunity to focus on fulfilling things like growing and strengthening a family and community or taking better care of oneself.
@Ryuko great takeaways! I think I learned a lot of this just from mises institute media in general, but I probably also need to pick this book up. How was the book in terms of speed and difficulty of reading? I enjoy a writer like Nietzsche or Stirner, but I find their writing is often unnecessarily difficult especially when I read Nietzsche and his work has references to Italian, French, Spanish, etc. that isn't translated in the works (which is odd, why would you translate the German to English, but not the other languages) or unclarified references to esoteric events and persons. Looking up things constantly when reading can be annoying.
yep... also made this meme and tweeted to DHH original ↗ and ESR original ↗. They might appreciate it too ;)
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@aillia thanks. i cannot even see who upvotes my posts. idk if that is good or bad. the parallel economy stuff and these books are the first thing that made opting out feel like a real door and not just a accept it all as is speech. thank you for the upvote and for pulling me into all of this.
i put that quote in because it is exactly what i have to think about now. hope he was right.
@OldNorseAnarchist way easier than bastiat. he just says the thing and gives an example. i did it as audio. chapters are short so my adhd brain did not bounce off it. not "fun." just clear. you will not need a second tab open the whole time.