Reviews for Economics Today

The average rating for Economics Today based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-08-31 00:00:00 Ann Baldwin Nói nhanh, đứa nào bảo "quyển này dễ đọc lắm, cứ đọc đi" là nó lừa đấy. Suy từ bụng mình ra bụng người thôi. Nếu chỉ đọc để "hiểu một vài ý chung" thì OK. Đại loại là Mark Thornton chứng minh rằng việc cấm đoán ma túy (từ cần sa đến côcain hay hêrôin và các biến thể của nó) thì chỉ làm cho tình hình kinh tế xã hội trở nên tệ hại hơn mà thôi. Ông chứng minh bằng cách tính toán các loại chi phí do cấm đoán gây ra rồi đến lợi ích của việc bãi bỏ nó và ảnh hưởng của nó đến xã hội. Ông dẫn chiếu đến Luật Cấm Rượu kinh điển ở Mỹ từ năm 1920 đến năm 1933. Cuốn sách có bổ sung thêm phần phụ lục cũng khá là đáng đọc liên quan đến chủ đề cấm đoán kinh tế, trong đó có cả việc cấm đoán mại dâm, với cùng tinh thần đề cao tự do trong kinh tế. Quyển sách đúng là rất nên đọc với dân kinh tế, với những nhà làm luật hay nghiên cứu khoa học xã hội. Nó cũng là loại sách thay-đổi-suy-nghĩ rất đáng để đọc với những ai thích thể loại này. Mình đọc quyển này cũng vì người dịch nó là bác Phạm Nguyên Trường :D - một dịch giả có tinh thần tự do rất đáng trân trọng.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-01-30 00:00:00 Tabatha Silk I really enjoyed "Economics of Prohibition". It is a short book (under 200 pages), but it is long on information and short on speculation. Some knowledge of economics would help one to understand some of Thornton's points more clearly, but the terminology and concepts can easily be looked up by complete economics novices. Thornton lays out this book by discussing the history of prohibition, the effects of prohibition, the theory of prohibition, and the future of prohibition. He tends to focus primarily on the prohibition of alcohol in the early 20th century and narcotics and marijuana prohibitions throughout the rest of the 20th century. He looks at prohibitions from an economic and free market perspective, illustrating how prohibition rises the prices of drugs and decreases users' real incomes. This necessarily reduces their standards of living, as they have less to spend on food, clothing, shelter, and other products and services. This reduction in real incomes makes crime more attractive; the risks to one's job and future income are now less valuable and less stark. The opportunity costs of crime are now lower, so more crime will be committed all else being equal. Also, Thornton explains that more law enforcement resources are diverted to the enforcement of drug laws under prohibition than under other forms of government intervention. These resources are diverted from enforcement of crimes like theft and rape. These crimes all the sudden become less costly to the criminal under prohibition because the chances of being caught are lower. This two-pronged effect increases crime from both ends. The interaction between those two factors was something I hadn't thought of before reading this book. Another important thing I took away from this book was Thornton's history of prohibitions. They have tended to be formed due to some combination of racism/anti-immigrant sentiment, coalition building by major political parties to garner support of interest groups, and the direct support of large corporate interests. Not surprisingly, the progressives of the early 20th century, with their brand of racism and belief in big government, absorbed prohibition into its platform. I believe that if more people understood the original sources of prohibition laws, there would be more public outcry against them. I'd recommend this to anyone that is interested in drug and alcohol prohibition and a free-market perspective on those topics. Though it seems as if everyone is in favor of marijuana legalization now, I was happy that Thornton strays from marijuana legalization and talks about the legalization of heroin and other narcotics. This is a much more controversial topic, but I believe he handles it with aplomb. Heroin prohibition has the same effects as marijuana prohibition, so if one embraces one, he should embrace the other. This is a thought-provoking book with a lot of quality information from disparate sources. Best part about it: it's available for free from the Mises Institute website in PDF form!