Authors Forum: Foundations of Economics

0:00This 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, 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. So it's been a great way to kick off the whole Austrian Scholars Conference. Our first presenter today is Dr. Sean Rittenour from Grove City College who will be presenting about his book, The Foundations of Economics. The seeds of my new book, Foundations of Economics, I have a copy right here, were sown at the 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.

1:05In 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. And for me, as a student then and even now, it made all the difference. All the economic theories that I was learning in my mainstream college classes suddenly fell logically into place. And I also explained at that event that as a Christian student being exposed to new thoughts and ideas, I wanted to make sure that economic theory could be integrated with a broadly Christian worldview. In other words, did economic doctrine regarding the nature of the acting person square with Christian doctrine and in recognizing that economic activity was the result of purposeful choices made by individuals, Mises provides a foundation of economics that fits very nicely with the Christian understanding of the nature of acting man.

2:04Now that audience of that address included providentially a certain successful Christian entrepreneur and supporter of the Mises Institute and this man had a heart for Christian education and for the free market and he also had a nonprofit foundation and told me that his foundation would grant me a grant to help write an introductory economics text from a Christian perspective and that is what I've tried to do with foundations of economics. I've been for years unsatisfied with the general textbook market for teaching students in general but also in Christian colleges and universities. I spent many hours searching for good supplemental readings to provide students with an understanding of how economics, good economics could integrate with the Christian worldview and although my efforts were okay as a stopgap measure, I kept searching in vain for a textbook that did what I wanted it to do, which was instruct students in sound, praxeological, realistic Economics within a sound Christian perspective. Now, there are several principles of economics texts available. Most of them are relatively jargon-laden

3:20encyclopedic tomes, more suited for reference than for teaching students economic principles. They often attempt to discuss the findings of every field of economics and usually end up being a mile wide and an inch deep. These texts emphasize memorizing facts and definitions. However, I was convinced and I am convinced that economics involves more than mere terms. It's a body of knowledge that enables people to apply fundamental principles to solving a myriad of economic problems. And therefore, the encyclopedic approach is not very useful in teaching economics. Of the very few principles texts that do attempt to teach students the fundamentals of economics, many are just scaled down versions of larger texts and often have a marked status orientation.

4:07Their 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. 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. and professors at Christian colleges and universities are sort of doubly challenged because they are left to supplement one of the standard works with articles from some type of Christian perspective but many of these materials do not advocate biblical principles in the area of the state or economic policy but merely offer interventionism dressed up in Christian language.

4:53So in Foundations of Economics I provide a Christian justification for economics as a as a discipline and show how relevant certain Christian doctrines impact both how we do economic analysis and how we analyze economic policy. Economics is important because it helps us solve one of mankind's greatest dilemmas. How are we to be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over creation in a fallen world of aggravated scarcity without spoiling it, starving to death, or killing one another? But not a superficial question, right? Too many Christians, actually, I'm convinced, use their worldview as an excuse for fuzzy thinking and a main mission I have is to demonstrate that there is no fundamental conflict between Christian doctrine and economic science properly conceived.

5:44Christianity teaches that as beings made in the image of God, humans act with a purpose and after establishing the truth of human action, I use Rothbardian pedagogy to build economic theory step-by-step so that the reader has an understanding of economic truth. I then derive fundamental laws of human action and use them to develop the laws of economics that are then applied to both microeconomic and macroeconomic issues. I've not included every jot and tittle that could be said about everything in economics but I hope to have provided a clear discussion of what the most important basic principles there are in economics for people to know. 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.

6:32In my text, I apply this conclusion to issues such as confiscatory taxation, government subsidies, business regulation, and monetary inflation. 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, Likewise, violating the morality of private property has disastrous consequences. So I'm hoping that this book in the hands of students and others, both in college and high school and beyond, may work to move us back to some semblance of the good society. Thank you.