The Why and How of Capitalism and Choice

To be fair, I forewarn my students that–as we begin a study of the Constitution or Gilded Age economics for that matter–I tend to act like a toddler. Like a toddler, I repeat the question “why” throughout class. “Why is the sky blue?”; “Why do blow-pops tastes so good?”; “How does one get to the center of a blow-pop? (you can tell my kids prefer blow-pops to tootsie-pops…)?” To the history student: “Why federalism?”; “Why did the anti-federalists insist on a Bill of Rights?”; “Why did the United States experience an economic boom of unprecedented proportions in the Gilded Age?”; “Why did Americans of all classes benefit from it?”

What I find so valuable about economist and all-around brilliant guy Robert Murphy’s work–especially his book Choice: Cooperation, Enterprise, and Human Action–is that the author tackles the why from page one, paragraph one. Explicating the work of the great Ludwig van Mises, Murphy leads the reader like Virgil to Dante through the supposed purgatory of the dismal science; note, it is only purgatorial because of the anguish the reader experiences once realizing that her high school and undergraduate Keynesian economics classes were a complete and very expensive waste of time.

The end game of the book: Relying upon the erudite explanation of economics as human action, praxeological in nature and then explaining in accessible terms marginal utility and diminishing return, Murphy builds the airtight case for why anything outside of unmitigated capitalism is just various degrees of madness and slavery.

In a time when airheads with degrees from Boston University (in economics no less) and seats in the House of Representatives are promoting a Green New Deal that will impoverish every American and much of the world as a result, well, reading Murphy’s book is ever more important; especially when the dopes ask you, “Why would ravaging the energy sector and tearing down structures throughout the country not result in prosperity(!)?” Warning: Not self-evident to them.