WEBVTT NOTE Authors Forum: Foundations of Economics 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.000 This is a kick-off event for the conference. It's the authors' forum where new books in the Austrian tradition are presented by the authors, 2 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:20.000 and you're given a chance to, of course, ask a few questions, possibly, and as well as to get some information about a book that you may be interested in purchasing. 3 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:26.000 So it's been a great way to kick off the whole Austrian Scholars Conference. 4 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:32.280 Our first presenter today is Dr. Sean Rittenour from Grove City College who will be presenting 5 00:00:32.280 --> 00:00:43.680 about his book, The Foundations of Economics. 6 00:00:44.680 --> 00:00:52.360 The seeds of my new book, Foundations of Economics, I have a copy right here, were sown at the 7 00:00:52.360 --> 00:01:05.360 I went to the Ludwig von Mises Institute back in the winter of 1999, where I gave an address at the Institute's Manifesto of Liberty Supporters Summit devoted to celebrating the publication of the Scholar's Edition of Mises's Human Action. 8 00:01:05.360 --> 00:01:20.360 In my remarks, I explained the importance of Mises's great work in my own life and thought, and I would again just reiterate that Mises's rooting economics in the truth of human action is hard to overestimate. 9 00:01:20.360 --> 00:01:25.360 And for me, as a student then and even now, it made all the difference. 10 00:01:25.360 --> 00:01:34.360 All the economic theories that I was learning in my mainstream college classes suddenly fell logically into place. 11 00:01:34.360 --> 00:01:40.360 And I also explained at that event that as a Christian student being exposed to new thoughts and ideas, 12 00:01:40.360 --> 00:01:46.360 I wanted to make sure that economic theory could be integrated with a broadly Christian worldview. 13 00:01:46.360 --> 00:01:50.600 In other words, did economic doctrine regarding the nature of the acting person square with 14 00:01:50.600 --> 00:01:56.120 Christian doctrine and in recognizing that economic activity was the result of purposeful 15 00:01:56.120 --> 00:02:01.400 choices made by individuals, Mises provides a foundation of economics that fits very nicely 16 00:02:01.400 --> 00:02:04.320 with the Christian understanding of the nature of acting man. 17 00:02:04.320 --> 00:02:10.440 Now that audience of that address included providentially a certain successful Christian 18 00:02:10.440 --> 00:02:16.200 entrepreneur and supporter of the Mises Institute and this man had a heart for Christian education 19 00:02:16.200 --> 00:02:21.560 and for the free market and he also had a nonprofit foundation and told me that his 20 00:02:21.560 --> 00:02:26.640 foundation would grant me a grant to help write an introductory economics text from 21 00:02:26.640 --> 00:02:33.720 a Christian perspective and that is what I've tried to do with foundations of economics. 22 00:02:33.720 --> 00:02:41.560 I've been for years unsatisfied with the general textbook market for teaching students in general 23 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:43.640 but also in Christian colleges and universities. 24 00:02:43.640 --> 00:02:49.480 I spent many hours searching for good supplemental readings to provide students with an understanding 25 00:02:49.480 --> 00:02:54.140 of how economics, good economics could integrate with the Christian worldview and although 26 00:02:54.140 --> 00:03:01.840 my efforts were okay as a stopgap measure, I kept searching in vain for a textbook that 27 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:09.240 did what I wanted it to do, which was instruct students in sound, praxeological, realistic 28 00:03:09.240 --> 00:03:14.580 Economics within a sound Christian perspective. Now, there are several 29 00:03:14.580 --> 00:03:20.100 principles of economics texts available. Most of them are relatively jargon-laden 30 00:03:20.100 --> 00:03:25.080 encyclopedic tomes, more suited for reference than for teaching students 31 00:03:25.080 --> 00:03:29.480 economic principles. They often attempt to discuss the findings of every field 32 00:03:29.480 --> 00:03:34.040 of economics and usually end up being a mile wide and an inch deep. These texts 33 00:03:34.040 --> 00:03:38.280 emphasize memorizing facts and definitions. However, I was convinced and 34 00:03:38.280 --> 00:03:41.320 I am convinced that economics involves more than mere terms. 35 00:03:41.320 --> 00:03:47.760 It's a body of knowledge that enables people to apply fundamental principles to solving 36 00:03:47.760 --> 00:03:49.680 a myriad of economic problems. 37 00:03:49.680 --> 00:03:56.160 And therefore, the encyclopedic approach is not very useful in teaching economics. 38 00:03:56.160 --> 00:04:02.120 Of the very few principles texts that do attempt to teach students the fundamentals of economics, 39 00:04:02.120 --> 00:04:07.320 many are just scaled down versions of larger texts and often have a marked status orientation. 40 00:04:07.320 --> 00:04:17.320 Their authors often damn the workings of the market with the faintest of praise, but then go to great lengths to justify government intervention in the economy, especially in the sections relating to monetary and physical policy. 41 00:04:17.320 --> 00:04:30.320 So there's a great need for an introductory economics text that begins with the fundamentals of human action and develops economic principles in a way that students can understand and then apply these principles to economic policy. 42 00:04:30.320 --> 00:04:36.960 and professors at Christian colleges and universities are sort of doubly challenged 43 00:04:36.960 --> 00:04:41.600 because they are left to supplement one of the standard works with articles from some type of 44 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:47.440 Christian perspective but many of these materials do not advocate biblical principles in the area 45 00:04:47.440 --> 00:04:52.640 of the state or economic policy but merely offer interventionism dressed up in Christian language. 46 00:04:53.200 --> 00:04:58.000 So in Foundations of Economics I provide a Christian justification for economics as a 47 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:02.100 as a discipline and show how relevant certain Christian doctrines impact both how we do 48 00:05:02.100 --> 00:05:06.760 economic analysis and how we analyze economic policy. 49 00:05:06.760 --> 00:05:11.980 Economics is important because it helps us solve one of mankind's greatest dilemmas. 50 00:05:11.980 --> 00:05:17.100 How are we to be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over creation in a fallen world 51 00:05:17.100 --> 00:05:23.980 of aggravated scarcity without spoiling it, starving to death, or killing one another? 52 00:05:23.980 --> 00:05:30.680 But not a superficial question, right? 53 00:05:30.680 --> 00:05:35.700 Too many Christians, actually, I'm convinced, use their worldview as an excuse for fuzzy 54 00:05:35.700 --> 00:05:40.660 thinking and a main mission I have is to demonstrate that there is no fundamental conflict between 55 00:05:40.660 --> 00:05:44.780 Christian doctrine and economic science properly conceived. 56 00:05:44.780 --> 00:05:48.860 Christianity teaches that as beings made in the image of God, humans act with a purpose 57 00:05:48.860 --> 00:05:52.920 and after establishing the truth of human action, I use Rothbardian pedagogy to build 58 00:05:52.920 --> 00:05:57.560 economic theory step-by-step so that the reader has an understanding of economic truth. 59 00:05:57.560 --> 00:06:01.480 I then derive fundamental laws of human action and use them to develop the laws of economics 60 00:06:01.480 --> 00:06:05.720 that are then applied to both microeconomic and macroeconomic issues. 61 00:06:05.720 --> 00:06:09.720 I've not included every jot and tittle that could be said about everything in economics 62 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:16.380 but I hope to have provided a clear discussion of what the most important basic principles 63 00:06:16.380 --> 00:06:19.720 there are in economics for people to know. 64 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:32.220 I also show how the right to private property is mandated by Christian ethics, and violation of this right by individuals is theft, and as Francis Whalen notes, violation by the state is also theft. 65 00:06:32.220 --> 00:06:39.820 In my text, I apply this conclusion to issues such as confiscatory taxation, government subsidies, business regulation, and monetary inflation. 66 00:06:39.820 --> 00:06:49.520 As recent economic events teach us, trying to achieve permanent prosperity by ignoring the laws, economic laws that God has established as a fool's game, 67 00:06:49.520 --> 00:06:55.020 Likewise, violating the morality of private property has disastrous consequences. 68 00:06:55.020 --> 00:07:04.020 So I'm hoping that this book in the hands of students and others, both in college and high school and beyond, 69 00:07:04.020 --> 00:07:10.520 may work to move us back to some semblance of the good society. Thank you.