Man, Economy, & State

When I was an undergraduate I got to take part in an honors course which was really just a playing field for a stand-off between the Economics department and a professor of History. As best as we could tell, the course resulted from some sort of bet that the History professor could teach us -- using Murray Rothbard's Man, Economy, and State -- enough in one quarter that we could, at the end of the quarter, successfully take and pass the challenge exams for Micro- and Macro-Economics (two quarters' worth of study). Well, he did, and we did.

Man, Economy, and State is a rather large book, 5 pounds and almost a thousand pages. I do confess to having used it as a doorstop now and then, though I have kept it these past 25 years as it had such an influence on my thinking. John S. Ryan, Amazon Reviewer, nicely summarizes the tome:

Rothbard systematically and rigorously develops all of economic theory from the axiom that human beings act to achieve ends in a world in which specific and delimitable causes have specific and delimitable effects. In so doing, he has written a work that, over three decades after its publication, still serves as a comprehensive introduction to Austrian School economics.

If you fancy reading more, you don't even have to pony up the dough, as you can read Man, Economy, & State free online at Ludwig Von Mises Institute.

Now you are probably asking -- if indeed you are still reading -- why a nice mommy-blogger like me is troubling my already-dazed and formerly-pretty little head about such things. Because, Austrian Economics makes sense to me, and, when carried to its logical conclusions, supports a very hands-off federal government.

Which brings me to a personally exciting and once-(thus far)-in-a-lifetime announcement: I have finally found someone to vote for that I can believe in.

I'll send a free bumper sticker to the first person who can guess which campaign I have joined. Leave your guess in the comments. Yup. It is Ron Paul: Hope for America.