Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics - Hardcover

Reisman, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0915463733 ISBN 13: 9780915463732

Publisher: TJS Books, 1996

Synopsis

Aimed at both the intelligent layman and the professional economist, this book is the most comprehensive and intellectually powerful explanation of the nature and value of laissez-faire capitalism that has ever been written. It represents a twofold major integration of truths previously discovered by other writers, combined with numerous original contributions made by the author himself. Within economic theory, it integrates leading ideas of the Austrian school with needlessly abandoned doctrines of the British classical school. It further integrates such reconstituted economic theory with essential elements of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism.

On the foundation of these integrations, Dr. Reisman is able to develop the numerous major original contributions that the book presents on the subjects of profits, wages, saving, capital accumulation, aggregate economic accounting, monopoly, and natural resources, among other vital subjects. Based on the same foundation, the book presents the most powerful critiques of Marx, Keynes, the pure-and-perfect competition doctrine, and environmentalism to be found anywhere.

A leading part of its trenchant economic analysis is a consistent demonstration of the natural harmony of the rational self-interests of all men under capitalism--of businessmen and wage earners, of consumers and producers, of men of all races and nationalities, including immigrants and the native born, and of competitors of all levels of ability--consonances most will find astonishing, given the prevailing misunderstandings of capitalism.

The book's importance and appeal to a general audience are evident in its description of prevailing attitudes toward capitalism and its challenge to learn why they are all completely wrong and the cause of self-destructive political behavior on a massive scale. For those with the intellectual courage to accept a challenge of having many of their firmest and most cherished beliefs reduced by unanswerable logic to the status of Dark-Age superstitions, here are some of the beliefs that Reisman's book demolishes: The profit motive is the cause of starvation wages, exhausting hours, sweatshops, and child labor; of monopolies, inflation, depressions, wars, imperialism, and racism. Saving is hoarding. Competition is the law of the jungle. Economic inequality is unjust and the legitimate basis for class warfare. Economic progress is a ravaging of the planet and, in the form of improvements in efficiency, a cause of unemployment and depressions. War and destruction or additional peacetime government spending are necessary to prevent unemployment under capitalism. Economic activity other than manual labor is parasitical. Businessmen and capitalists are recipients of "unearned income" and are "exploiters." The stock and commodity markets are "gambling casinos"; retailers and wholesalers are "middlemen," having no function but that of adding "markups" to the prices charged by farmers and manufacturers; advertisers are inherently guilty of fraud--the fraud of attempting to induce people to desire the goods that capitalism showers on them, but that they allegedly have no natural or legitimate basis for desiring.

Reisman's book flies in the face of all such anticapitalistic ideas and demands. Its thesis is that never have so many people been so ignorant and confused about a subject so important, as most people now are about economics and capitalism. It argues that in its logically consistent form of laissez-faire capitalism--that is, with the powers of government limited to those of national defense and the administration of justice--capitalism is a system of economic progress and prosperity for all, and is a precondition of world peace. Following an exhaustive economic analysis of virtually every aspect of capitalism, the book's concluding chapter is devoted to the presentation of a long-range political-economic program for the achievement of a fully capitalist society.

About this title

About the Author

George Reisman, Ph.D., is Pepperdine University Professor Emeritus of Economics, and the author of Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics (Ottawa, Illinois: Jameson Books, 1996; Kindle Edition, 2012), The Government Against the Economy; Warren Buffett, Class Warfare, and the Exploitation Theory; The Benevolent Nature of Capitalism and Other Essays; Labor Unions, Thugs, and Strom Troopers; and, most recently, Piketty's Capital: Wrong Theory/Destructive Program. His website is capitalism.net. His blog is georgereismansblog.blogspot.com. See his Amazon.com author's page and follow him on Twitter @GGReisman.
 
Dr. Reisman is married to Edith Packer, J.D., Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, with whom he lives in Laguna Hills, California.
 
He was personally a student of Ludwig von Mises, whose NYU seminar he attended for eight years and under whom he obtained his doctorate in economics in 1963. He is the translator of von Mises's Epistemological Problems of Economics (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1960). From1957 until her death in 1982, he was an associate of Ayn Rand.
 

From the Back Cover

"Reisman's exposure of modern mercantilist fallacies takes its place alongside
that of Adam Smith."
-JAMES BUCHANAN,
NOBEL LAUREATE IN ECONOMICS, 1988

"Every commentator on current affairs who is not a fully trained economist ought
to read The Government Against the Economy [revised and expanded in Chapters
6-8 of Capitalism] if he wants to talk sense. I know no other place where the crucial
issues are explained as clearly and convincingly .. . "
-F.A. HAYEK,
NOBEL LAUREATE IN ECONOMICS, 1974

"A magnum opus on the nature of capitalism, one that has depth, breadth, foresight
and style. It is a book on economics that stands head and shoulders above all others
as a monumental tribute to the human capacity to engage in productive work and the
moral worth of a system of principles wherein such work is fully appreciated. While
detailed and touching on nearly every possible nuance of the subject, this is a very
readable book which anticipates all the questions and objections educated, thoughtful
people may have about an economic system that has not been given its full and proper
due by anyone before Reisman took up the task. Ludwig von Mises would be gratified
to know how one of his students has carried forth the task he began."
- TIBOR R. MACHAN,
PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY,
AUBURN UNIVERSITY

"Reisman develops powerful and highly original theories of aggregate profit and interest,
savings and capital accumulation, wages, and aggregate economic accounting. At once
an introductory, intermediate, and advanced text, as well as a mine of information on
current political and economic issues, it advances economic theory by several leagues
and paves the way for a genuine twenty-first century liberalism."
-JERRY KIRKPATRICK,
PROFESSOR OF MARKETING,
CALIFORNIA STATE POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY

"Reisman has compiled one of the best defenses of the economics and morality of
liberty I've seen written in recent years."
-WALTER E. WILLIAMS,
PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS,
GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

"Reisman's Capitalism is the most rigorous and relentless case for laissez-faire
capitalism written in our time. It is both a brilliant rebuttal of the charges against
the market order and a discerning master plan for the restoration of capitalism.
-HANS SENNHOLZ,
PRESIDENT,
FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC EDUCATION

"For two full academic years prior to its publication I had the fortunate opportunity
to use working manuscripts of Capitalism as primary readings for my graduate
business economics classes at Johns Hopkins University. The student response
has been overwhelmingly positive. Capitalism 's value as a treatise that provides
a comprehensive, logically consistent view of the economic world cannot be overstated.
It is brilliantly structured and offers the best integration of important new economic
insights and time-tested truths available anywhere."
-ROBERT D. MILLER,
LECTURER,
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

"An excellent alternative to the standard texts used in most college introductory
economics courses today because it includes a review of the Keynesian arguments
along with a clear and convincing refutation ...Reisman has taken a complex
subject and made it understandable. In my experience, students who have read this
work come away believing that economic principles are important and that
economics actually makes sense."
-GEORGE A. MANGIERO,
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS,
IONA COLLEGE

"A sweeping and compelling case for the free market, which, as Professor
Reisman shows, is the key to civilization."
-LLWELLYN H. ROCKWELL, JR.,
PRESIDENT,
LUDWIG VON MISES INSTITUTE

From the Inside Flap

This book ranks among the most comprehensive, intellectually powerful and readable defenses of capitalism ever written.

A principal theme of the book, consistently demonstrated, is the natural harmony of self‑interests--of businessmen, wage earners, and consumers--under capitalism, a consonance most will find astonishing given the prevailing misunderstandings of capitalism.

Basing this work on the integration of the theories of the Austrian school and needlessly-abandoned doctrines of the British classical economists, the author also offers his own original contributions on the subjects of profits, wages, saving, capital accumulation, natural resources, monopoly, aggregate economic accounting, and other vital economic phenomena.

Major economic fallacies--beliefs held by a majority of today's intellectuals--are convincingly explained and refuted, including, among many others, the theories of Marx and Keynes, the pure‑and‑perfect‑competition doctrine, environmentalism, and the beliefs that the greed of unregulated business drives down wages and forces up prices, and that automation and international free trade cause unemployment.

George Reisman's Capitalism is a book of moral philosophy as well as economics, as for example was Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. It is a landmark defense of capitalism--capitalism not only as a prerequisite for the continued material progress of civilization and a rising standard of living for all, but also as the only system that is consistent with human nature and a free society.

Reviews

Reisman's ringing manifesto for laissez-faire capitalism free of all government intervention is at once a conservative polemic and a monumental treatise, brimming with original theories. that is remarkable for its depth, scope and rigorous argument. He rejects the Keynesian doctrine that government must adopt a policy of budget deficits to cope with unemployment, contending, to the contrary, that federal intervention in the economic system is a root cause of inflation, credit expansion, depression and mass unemployment. Reisman staunchly defends capitalists as risk-takers who raise the average worker's real wages and living standards, increasing productivity and improving the quantity and quality of goods. Socialism, he says, is the system that exploits labor and causes stifling monopolistic control. Professor of economics at L.A.'s Pepperdine University, Reisman frequently espouses unfashionable, some would say "extreme," views; for instance, he opposes mandatory recycling, defends insider trading of stocks as justifiable and beneficial and condemns laws banning child labor as an "inappropriate" response to a social ill. His call for a pro-capitalist political movement dedicated to the abolition of the welfare state, elimination of Social Security and Medicare, dismantling of public education, private ownership of all land, abolition of personal and corporate income taxes and a 90% cutback in government spending seems to put this tome beyond the pale of mainstream political debate?although it does come with advance raves from two Nobel laureates in economics. Conservative Book Club and Laissez Faire Book Club selection.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: TJS Books
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0915463733
• ISBN 13: 9780915463732
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1096