Bastiat

[CARLHAYDEN]

One of my favorite economists was Frederich Bastiat.

His seminal work was The Law.

I believe his most imporant contribution to economics was his understanding of delayed (and frequently unintended) consequences of economikc policies.

Here is a synopsis of that point:

Bastiat also emphasized the unintended consequences of government policy (he called them the “unseen” consequences). Friedrich Hayek credits Bastiat with this important insight: if we judge economic policy solely by its immediate effects, we will miss all of its unintended and longer-run effects and will undermine economic freedom, which delivers benefits that are not part of anyone’s conscious design. Much of Hayek’s work, and some of Milton Friedman’s, was an exploration and elaboration of this insight.

[Bunwahaha [still dunno why, but well, so be it]]

The only short term benefits, and the fact that we only envisage the word "benefit" as something financial, here's why I have a problem with this economical system for a while now...