It’s crucial for lovers of liberty to understand how a voluntary economic marketplace works, in order to explode the myths and lies of its enemies

To Understand Public Policy, 

First Understand Markets

by Robert P. Murphy

In this day and age, virtually every major “public” or “social” issue involves proposals for government interference with the market. That’s why it’s crucial for lovers of liberty to understand how a voluntary economic marketplace works, in order to explode the myths and lies of its enemies.

In the final section of Human Action, Ludwig von Mises stressed the importance of all citizens to acquaint themselves with the findings of economic science. Unlike physics or engineering — where the scientists could safely continue with their advancements, whether or not the average person understood how they worked — economicpolicies as enacted by governments will ultimately rest with public opinion. No matter how decisively the great classical economists destroyed the case for mercantilism centuries ago, we still suffer from tariffs because most people want to “save jobs” by keeping out “cheap foreign imports.”

Indeed, just about all of the “public issues” of today are crucially dependent on an understanding of sound economics, including ObamaCare, Bitcoin, quantitative easing, the trillion-dollar platinum coin, so-called “green” energy initiatives, and the “sequester.” To understand whether government intervention in a particular sector will bring desirable effects, the first task is to learn how the market economy works.

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Read more: mises.org