At one time long ago, I held close to my convictions, opinions, beliefs and values thinking they would carry me through my future years.  I’m realizing more every day that I’m breaking down these convictions one by one, in the face of new truths.  If that time long ago was bright and full of certainties, today is even brighter without the guarantees.  Sometimes, I feel that everything I know is wrong, but then I have to tell myself that is also a blessing.  Discovering the wrong means I have found the right, realizing the truth means I have destroyed a lie.  If you want to discover the truth, like I have, to the point that it may even frighten while at the same time enlightening you, read Economics in One Lesson.

Due to the recession and constant reminder of my retirement account dwindling away, a fire of interest toward economics has ignited.  A time has passed since college, so I decided to pick up this book to refresh my memory.  I thought I remembered a lot from back then, I was absolutely wrong.  “Everything the government is doing is wrong,” I cry out to my coworkers.  They stare back blankly with empty eyes or divert the issue with a joke.  I wonder if they will make jokes when inflation, the dollar destroyer, becomes a never ending spiral. Do they not see their retirement accounts disappearing?  Do they simply not care? Do they hope for some sort of miracle? Or, do they wish to ignore the past?

“This book is an analysis of economic fallacies that are at last so prevalent that they have almost become a new orthodoxy,”

The author Henry Hazlitt states this as the very first sentence of his preface. If I continue through life without using reason and hold on to whims and convictions, that are false, I would be living my own false orthodoxy in blind faith.  Henry explains simply the economic fallacies that keep being repeated throughout history from ancient Greece to now.  They disguise themselves under different names like a stimulus package which is a lie, a wolf in sheep’s clothing that has been repeated over and over through time.  A package to benefit a special group instead of all groups; the first group receives the money and buys products at the current price.  By the time the money gets fully into the economy, prices have shot up and the new bills have diluted the market to the point that average Joe does not benefit, because his dollar is now worth much less.  These economic policies are enacted without thought to future generations.  As my friend Jason has stated, “The government is like a kid with a chemistry set, mixing whatever chemicals it can in order to find the magical solution to stop cause and effect.”

Riches cannot be attained through the accumulation of debt.  This much seems simple but is yet so overlooked that even our government holds on to the fallacy of deficit spending.  I can’t force anyone to educate themselves on these matters, but I can point a finger to the way.  I’m a humorous person with optimism like a true American, and I think, even now that through educating ourselves and others we can still fix the inflation machine.  Like Confucius said, “The past is a lamp that is carried on our backs.”  In my own words, we can only look to the past to learn and understand what has happened, meanwhile, the future is unknown and can always change.  We can change the future, but first let’s look closely at what has been going wrong to begin with, so when we do step into tomorrow it isn’t so dark.

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