Obviously, the most blatantly fallacious ideologies infect the political and economic scene. One quick glance at our ongoing economic crisis tells you something fishy is going on. It’s bad enough that the political and financial establishment spouts and enforces about every economic fallacy known to man—but unfortunately, they convinced the masses that their snake oil possesses curative powers.
First, let’s discover sound economic reasoning.
The greatest economic books of all time are:
1. Human Action – Ludwig von Mises
2. Man, Economy and State – Murray Rothbard
3. Socialism- Ludwig von Mises
4. Theory of Money and Credit – Ludwig von Mises
5. Capitalism – George Reisman
6. Capital and Interest – Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk
7. The Failure of the “New Economics” – Henry Hazlitt
8. The Wealth of Nations – Adam Smith
There are other great works on economics—but I only considered books 400 pages or more. Also, I didn’t consider a book I haven’t read or I’m not familiar with—so the above list is my opinion.
The greatest economists of all time are:
1. Ludwig von Mises
2. Murray Rothbard
3. Friedrich A. Hayek
4. Henry Hazlitt
5. Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk
6. Carl Menger
7. Joseph Schumpeter
8. Milton Friedman
9. Frank H. Knight
10. Adam Smith
By the way, I only listed those economic geniuses who are no longer with it us—so my apologies to such current greats such as Thomas Sowell, George Reisman and others. You may very well disagree with my list or the order I list these great masters of economics. If you want to discover some of the living masters of economics who could one day make the list visit The Ludwig von Mises Institute.
You may wonder what my lists have to do with my opening paragraph. Following is an excerpt from Mises’ economic masterpiece Human Action Third Revised Edition pages 184-185. I ask you, “Who can follow up my opening paragraph better than Ludwig von Mises?”
Here’s what Mises has to say about “The Fight Against Error.”
A critical examination of the philosophical systems constructed by mankind’s great thinkers has very often revealed fissures and flaws in the impressive structure of those seemingly consistent and coherent bodies of comprehensive thought. Even the genius in drafting a world view sometimes fails to avoid contradictions and fallacious syllogisms.
The ideologies accepted by public opinion are still more infected by the shortcomings of the human mind. They are mostly an eclectic juxtaposition of ideas utterly incompatible with one another. They cannot stand a logical examination of their content. Their inconsistencies are irreparable and defy any attempt to combine their various parts into a system of ideas compatible with one another.
Some authors try to justify the contradictions of generally accepted ideologies by pointing out the alleged advantages of a compromise, however unsatisfactory from the logical point of view, for the smooth functioning of interhuman relations. They refer to the popular fallacy that life and reality are “not logical”; they contend that a contradictory system may prove its expediency or even its truth by working satisfactorily while a logically consistent system would result in disaster. There is no need to refute anew such popular errors. Logical thinking and real life are not two separate orbits.
Logic is for man the only means to master the problems of reality. What is contradictory in theory, is no less contradictory in reality. No ideological inconsistency can provide a satisfactory, i.e., working, solution for the problems offered by the facts of the world. The only effect of contradictory ideologies is to conceal the real problems and thus to prevent people from finding in time an appropriate policy for solving them. Inconsistent ideologies may sometimes postpone the emergence of a manifest conflict. But they certainly aggravate the evils which they mask and render a final solution more difficult. They multiply the agonies, they intensify the hatreds, and make peaceful settlement impossible. It is a serious blunder to consider ideological contradictions harmless or even beneficial.
The main objective of praxeology and economics is to substitute consistent correct ideologies for the contradictory tenets of popular eclecticism. There is no other means of preventing social disintegration and of safeguarding the steady improvement of human conditions than those provided by reason. Men must try to think through all the problems involved up to the point beyond which a human mind cannot proceed farther.
If only enough people understood and embraced these words of wisdom.
Robert A. Meyer
The Libertarian Way