Economics

This book emphasizes many of the things that are imperative to economic prosperity. I appreciate the way that economics works since I can relate it to the real world so easily at work, shopping, school, and just in daily life. I'd have to say that out of every class if mine people should definitely have to take economics at least two semesters in high school or more because it is so important to understand the way the world works. Most people have no clue about economics and it bugs me because as I learn more and more about it, I wish I could share my knowledge with everyone. And if more people understood that if minimum-wage keeps going up is a bad thing they wouldn't have voted for it, if people weren't so uninformed to the fact that price ceilings caused shortages of scarce goods these idiot politicians wouldn't be getting votes when they promise or claim that they'll impose price controls on gasoline.

When this book talks about there being "no such thing as a free lunch" it made me think a little bit more about what all from an economic perspective had to happen in order to make that "free lunch" and why it wasn't free at all in actuality. Because in reality nothing is free. We may think it is free but it really isn't. I have come to learn that and I never really thought about it until the book mentioned that. And where the authors talk about reducing transaction cost to increase production or output it explains why a store like Wal-Mart would be moving towards self checkout lines versus having a real person there as a cashier to lower labor costs to help the company stay competitive.

Even though the first chapter covers what I already knew about free market economics (i.e. Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand" theory.) it is still the very important in the world of economics. Without Smith's idea of economics our economy would cease to exist today. I see people every day that make me wonder how we are even a stable country anymore. Like for example, I have had many jobs in the past and anytime a customer comes up to me complaining about an item being too expensive I wish I could just tell them "Why don't you go back to college and take economics then come back and see me and let's see if you complain then!" Of course I could never say something like that because customers are always right when it comes to the workforce, but I do feel that strongly about it and I really wish more people were so ignorant.

Another important topic that I found to be quite interesting was in the book it claims that there are rent controls on apartments. They say it will reduce rents and make housing more affordable for the poor. I agree with that full-heartedly.