Sabado, Hulyo 20, 2013

Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow

The articles in this outline are not as I desired. I am thinking of rewriting them if ever I will have a chance to teach these topics. As imperfect as they may appear, I just want to share my summaries of Ludwig von Mises' lectures on "Economic Policy". I want to do it in Q & A form. To read the details, the reader is advised to go to the article itself. 

So here's our simplified  Q & A on economic policy:



Answer: For people believe what the mainstream says about capitalism.




Answer: For people do not know its real face and its erroneous foundation.




Answer: Whether you know it or not, whether you believe in its existence or not, it does not go away. The fact is, it increases in power as long as people are not aware about its existence and the harm it is doing to the economy.




Answer: You have to understand the historical meaning of inflation. The way it is used today is different from the way it was used in the past. In the past, inflation meant increase in money supply. 




A. It's the increase in capital investment per capita that matters. Whatever economic policies that prevent the accumulation of both domestic capital and the entrance of foreign investment must be discarded if we want our country to achieve higher standard of living.




Answer: It depends on our ideas. If we continually cling to ideas that shaped bad economic policies in the first place, for sure, Western civilization will collapse. We just do not know when. It still depends on people's response to Statism. So the need of the hour is to replace bad ideas with better ideas.



The ideas in all these questions and answers are taken from Ludwig von Mises' book, "Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow". Mises' central point throughout his lectures is about the better economic policy that will improve people's lives. The choice is between socialism and capitalism. He exposed the real face of socialism and its two most destructive policies - interventionism and inflation. He clarified several misconceptions about capitalism and argued for the case of capitalism as the only economic system that can increase people's standard of living.