Events

An injudicious tax offers a great temptation to smuggling. But the penalties of smuggling must rise in proportion to the temptation. The law, contrary to all the ordinary principles of justice, first creates the temptation, and then punishes those who yield to it…

— Adam Smith

Book V of Adam Smith’s classic is entitled “Of the Revenue of the Sovereign or Commonwealth,” includes the above as well as many thoughtful passages about what we nowadays call public finance.  Our Political Economy Book Club  will discuss this final part of Wealth of Nations on Wednesday, November 12.  You can download or read the book on line from several sources, borrow it from many public libraries, or purchase a copy inexpensively.

For further information or to let us know you’re coming, email PEBC coordinator Bob Matter or call 312 450 2906.

America’s only Political Economy Book Club discusses Candide, Voltaire’s 1759 masterpiece that ridicules religion, theologians, governments, armies, philosophies and philosophers through allegory.  As Jean Starobinski notes,”The fast-paced and improbable plot—in which characters narrowly escape death repeatedly, for instance—allows for compounding tragedies to befall the same characters over and over again.”

It’s only a hundred pages or so depending on the translation and format, and is available in English translation free from Project Gutenberg  (in several formats) as well as from the Internet Archive, where there is also an audiobook. 

PEBC coordinator Bob Matter would appreciate an RSVP, if possible, from those planning to attend.

Based on Henry George’s Social Problems and additional resources, this course is open to all interested adults.  You’re welcome to sit in on the first session free, after which a $25 registration fee applies. Course meets Tuesdays, April 5 thru June 7. Course description is here. It is helpful if you pre-register.

“The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought – that is, a thought diverging from the principles of IngSoc – should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words.“

— George Orwell

Something like this has happened to the field of economics, says Dan Sullivan.  Terms which had clear meanings to Adam Smith, J S Mill, and other classical economists have got distorted and redefined– or obliterated–  to prevent serious discussion of economic issues. Going back to the roots of political economy, Dan suggests the real point of a proper science of economics would be to efficiently satisfy the desires of the people, both individually and collectively.

Dan will help us distinguish between “rights” and “privileges,” “investments” and “acquisitions”,  and several distinct concepts that all get called “wealth.” He’ll address the difference between “means of production” and “capital,” and differentiate “human capital” from modern slavery.

You can understand today’s economic issues such as minimum wages, tax policy, international trade, housing costs, and unemployment, but only if you have a clear idea of the fundamental terms.  These terms can be readily comprehended by ordinary people and do not lead to any particular “left” or “right” public policy, but they facilitate informed communication.

There will of course be time for questions and discussion.

Based in Pittsburgh, Dan Sullivan is a popular speaker on economic issues, and Director of Saving Communities

Ron Baiman will speak on taxing the rentier sectors to achieve the necessary reallocation of economic resources and investment. Mr. Baiman is an economics professor at Benedictine University,

Registration is required for this free event.