Currently I am about halfway through Thomas Sowell’s enlightening book, Basic Economics – A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy. I know I can not do an adequate review of a book I have not entirely read, but so far I would definitely recommend it. So many political policies and decisions can be easily seen as total bunk if only the most basic economic principles are applied. Sowell very eloquently explains how.

When I went to my local library to check the book out it was not there so I had to have it transported for “free” (my tax dollars at work) from another local branch. The librarian who helped me with the process commented that I must have to read the book for a class because it didn’t sound very interesting. She was very surprised that I actually wanted to read it for personal reasons. Maybe I’m just weird, but I guess it does explain a lot about some of the support that seemingly insane economic policies get from politicians as well as the general public. I wonder what is actually being taught about economics to high school students. Sometimes it seems to gives credence to Neal Boortz’s argument that the current public “government” school system poses a greater threat to American Democracy than Islamic terrorism.

A couple good quotes from the book:

Unfortunately, the real minimum wage is always zero, regardless of the laws, and that is the wage that many workers receive in the wake of the creation or escalation of a government-mandated minimum wage, because they lose their jobs.

What connects the self-interest of a company with the efficiency of the economy as a whole are prices.

Few things are more simple than the fact that people tend to buy more at lower prices and buy less at higher prices. But, putting that together with the fact that producers tend to supply more at higher prices and less at lower prices, that is enough to predict all sorts of complex reactions to price controls, whether in the housing market or in the market for food, electricity, or medical care.