Essay on Economics in One Lesson

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Pages: 5

"Economics in One Lesson" is an introduction to free market economics written by Henry Hazlitt and published in 1946. Hazlitt begins his monumental book by describing the problems with economic science, showing that its fallacies are greatly exacerbated compared to other scientific fields because of special interests in government. The special interest groups consistently advocate policies that they benefit from at the expense of everyone else. Many people, however, believe these fallacies because of man’s nature to see only the “immediate effects of a given policy, or its effects only on a special group.” Those people neglect the long-term effects and the implications on other groups by an economic policy. Hazlitt goes on to explain that
This higher production in turn has contributed to higher wages and standards of living – the economic goal of any country. This is the long-term result and bring benefit for all the people in the economy such as consumers can buy chipper product that without cost of labor who sell the product and producer can save labor cost as well. This argument overlooks the fact that full production equates to full employment in the sense that everyone has something to do within the time they are employed. It further overlooks the fact that there are many people within the government who are fully employed without being fully productive.

For the pressures imposed on minimum wages, there are two forces pushing minimum wages which are legislation and labor unions. They only see the short-term result of minimum wage that is protect the benefit for the labors and increase the live standards for the workers. But both these forces ignore the fact that they cannot impose a price for labor that employers cannot pay for. The driving force for wages is production and employers cannot afford to pay for labor that does not produce. For the long-term result, if employers were to succumb to the pressure of law and unions, they will end up sacrificing the development of the business which, in the end, will equate to the