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@@jannetteberends8730 What would you suggest as a normal basic economics book?

@ is economics a subject in high schools? Then any high school book is a good start. Otherwise ask a university what they use. You need to start with an unbiased book. Sowell isn’t unbiased.

@jannetteberends8730 I have done economics in high school (the economics teacher I had knew of Thomas Sowell and respected him). There are many elements of Sowell's book "Basic Economics" that overlap with the neoclassical perspective we learned during high school (not the only perspective we learned in econ class but the one the resonated with me most). Is Basic Economics biased towards free markets? Sure. That does not make him wrong. His work on price controls for example would be taken for granted in most beginner econ classes. Should one read left-wing equivalent to Sowell's books? Sure. But for laymen who want to bypass the math jargon in economics Sowell is a godsend (especially for those who lean towards the neoclassical or Austrian schools of economics). Sowell is the economist equivalent of a popular historian. If you want to become a professional economist or work in something related to economics then reading Sowell of course is not enough. But he should not be ignored either (so many things that are regularly asserted in the media have been debunked by him countless times).

@@TheAvidReaderBookReviews Sowell runs a coverup for capitalist exploitation as he never discusses what makes the capitalist era different from previous societies or seriously examines the issues of war and peace.

@kimobrien Sowell’s has one chapter dedicated to war in his book Intellectuals and Society. He has also talked in other books about how the capitalist class has historically been antiwar (such as world war 1 being bad for business since it stops trade).

If the United States abandons its mission of providing security for the world, the world will become more unstable. This would lead to a disruption of markets and weaken both America's own economy and security. There are resources the United States needs that it can only access by trading with the world. And there are millions of American jobs that would disappear if it imposed tariffs because many American sectors are reliant on importing cheap resources and components. The whole American chips sector for example is reliant on imports from places like Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands and China. Chips are in every facet of American life. Stop importing chips and you destroy the American economy and its source of power. Sure, it is unfair that other countries do not pay enough for military security. But that is changing (most NATO countries reach the 2% threshold on military spending now and Japan is abandoning its pacifism). American already turned its back on the world once. That is in part what caused the great depression (higher tariffs) and WW2 (America letting Germany and Japan grow into a bigger and bigger threat by not being an active member of the League of Nations). The reason the status quo is unsustainable is not the trade deficit. It is the budget deficit, especially domestic entitlements and huge subsidies. It is out of control government spending, not American involvement in the world. US aid for Ukraine for example has been far less than 1% of US GDP. Spending on US interest payments is now 2.4% of GDP.

When I was a teenager, Europeans dismissed the sums of money the US government spent on THEIR defense. “It’s only 10 Pennies a year from each American for Americans to take care of us.” This is propaganda they were taught in school. How many troops does the USA have stationed in Japan? How do those young men get to Japan? Who pays for their transportation? Where do those men sleep in Japan? Who pays for their shelter and their beds? What do those young men eat in Japan? Who pays for their food? How much does the USA pay Japan ANNUALLY in rent for the use of Japanese military bases and harbors? How much has the US government spent to build and maintain those military bases and naval harbors? Finally, how much does the US government spend annually to pay these US soldiers and sailors to defend Japan? How much does our government spend on healthcare and education and retirement benefits for military personnel who defend the borders of Japan? How much money do these USA personnel pump into the Japanese economy every year when they go out to eat or drink or visit famous Japanese landmarks? Now imagine that the USA spent all that money defending our own Southern border instead. Think how rich the people of New Mexico and Arizona would be if that money poured into their local coffers instead of Japanese coffers. After you have sorted out how many dollars the USA spent in Japan in 2023, multiply that sum by 80 years. Then-if you wish to be honest-do the exact same thing with Germany and France and the UK.

@@Ryllas01 The entire point of religion is a moral code, no matter how flawed it is. A moral code means nothing if it can be changed on a whim. It is fine to not like Catholicism or its values. It is another thing to expect a fundamental pillar of a denomination to change on someone’s whim because of current secular trends. Also, the whole ending is premised on covering up a lie (pretending that the prospective pope is what is traditionally defined as a man) and thus violates a fundamental principle of almost all moral codes, which is not to lie. Even if conservative ideology were bad, that does not make it acceptable to bastardize every aspect of its conservative institutions (it would be like claiming that marxism is pro-monarchy). Some people want an outlet for their consensual private beliefs. Cutting off all such places is wrong. You have a right to seek community in beliefs, as long as it is voluntary and non-violent. What Robert Harris did with the ending of his novel would be like if the Amish suddenly decided to choose their bishops to be tiktokers. It just does not make plausible sense. Robert Harris usually writes plausible endings. But not with this book.

@ Not only is Religion not the basis of Moral Codes, they should absolutely be changed on a whim when new information is presented that shows strict adherence to said moral code to be detrimental to society at large. Some portions of moral codes should never be cemented, and to compare every aspect of a moral code as equal to every other one is ridiculous. There are several examples of prospective popes in this story lying in hopes of gaining power, and the condemnation of the person clearly best fit to take on the title of Pope in their presentation and ideals as wrong (and acting like it’s lead to the total collapse of an entire institution) because their being biologically intersex, something they have no control over, is being kept secret, is laughable and pathetic. There’s a reason religion is dying, and its old-head thinking like yours, along with Catholicisms countless atrocities, that is killing its appeal. Not an admittedly romantic, but FICTIONAL story about the prospect of positive change within Catholicism. There’s your other mistake, expecting the writer to adhere to how you think he should write. He can write whatever he wants.

😂😂😂😂

@@blitheringape5321 I did not laugh a single time reading this novel. And I have read novels that make me laugh. The reason this novel is confusing is because it is written in such a boring way that makes the story hard to follow at times. I did not provide examples because, despite forcing myself to finish the novel, I vividly remembered very little of it.

@TheAvidReaderBookReviews lmao that's on you homie "It's confusing cause i didn't pay attention", well it would be wouldn't it

@ If a novel is not engrossing, that’s on the author, not the reader. And I did my best to pay attention. That’s why I reread many paragraphs several times and was still confused. This is the only novel something like this has happened to me. Some other novels have been bad but were still relatively coherent.

@@TheAvidReaderBookReviews given the reception it got it was obviously engrossing. again, clearly on you

@@Broonzied Definitely his worst ending!

Thank you.

@@mcgarrtirishgal3903 You are welcome. 👍

@NRWTx It is true that state intervention has not always (fully) inhibited growth. However, while there was some real GDP per capita growth in Britain when it was protectionist, it only really took off after trade barriers where lowered in the second half of the nineteenth century. In the 150 years prior Britain GDP per capita increased about 150%. In the 150 years after (when Britain had been far more free trade oriented, with the exception of the interwar period and two world war) GDP per capita increased by eightfold. Furthermore, Chang cites the Tudor tariffs as successful (an era when Britain's standard of living stagnated and had no sustained increase in the standard of living). Speaking of India, it's economy stagnated when it embraced tariffs in the cold war and has only taken off since it decreased its presence in the economy in the 1990s. You could argue that protecting the infant industries was a necessary step before embracing free trade to achieving development. However, Africa embraced import-substitution policies during the cold war, protecting their infant industries, with several of those countries having declines in real incomes. Countries that were more free market oriented, like Botswana and the Ivory Coast, grew far more during the cold war then isolationist countries in Africa. True, countries got rich while also embracing interventionist policies. However, if you look at the overall mix then countries that were more free market tending to grow more. It is true that the Asian tigers somewhat undermine the thesis free trade is necessary for growth. However, those are the exceptions to the rule. I have done economic history at university. Those who embraced the two waves of globalization (1848-1914, 1945-present), meaning being generally less interventionist, where the ones who grew most. East Asian countries were far less interventionist than Latin America and Africa and grew far more. China's current attempt to destroy Western manufacturing through increased protectionism and debt-fueled state-owned enterprises has only resulted in economic stagnation for China. It is possible to find examples of government intervention succeeding and the free market failing. But those are the exceptions. And what usually determined those exceptions was the presence (or lack thereof) of good institutions like the rule of law or other factors like a government that was not busy fighting a large scale insurgency (which explains why a large part of Africa has stagnated in the post-cold war years). Chang is categorically against free trade, at least always in the infant stages. He acknowledges some nuances from time to time but ignores the big trends.

@@TheAvidReaderBookReviews Seems legit. I just wanted to add a nuance to your initial presentation of chang.. I'm not sure about your exeption to the rule point. I think you could aswell argue for the opposite position. And even if you are right, then that makes an awfull lot of exeptions to the rule... Anyway, good to see you confront your beliefs by reading books that dont simply confirm them. Keep doing it. Maybe try Mazzucato's entrepreneurial state.

@@NRWTx Thanks. I have read a lot of libertarian economics books in the past so I have a pretty good understanding of Austrian/Chicago economics which makes reading any more such libertarian econ books a bit redundant and repetitive. To get a more balanced understanding I intend to continue reading more left-wing books in the coming year. I will check and see if Mazzucato is at my university library. Feel free to recommend me more left-wing economics books.

@@TheAvidReaderBookReviews das kapital, lol Maybe these ones : Samir amin's delinking, Michael heinrich's books and conferences on Marx's works, Mandel's long wave of capitalist develpment.

@@TheAvidReaderBookReviews also david graeber's stuff

Thank you!! It’s been a long journey.

BTW, are you going to see the film?

@@maxdepasquale2351I don’t know. Maybe if the movie is put on Netflix I will watch it.

You are welcome!

Oh screw off, journalism major. It's not a printed review, it's just a guy on TH-cam talking about the book.

@@cyprus-_-killer-hd01b3 If you want a good breakdown of basic geopolitics theories then the first 100 pages of Robert Kaplan’s Revenge of Geography are a good start (technically not an academic book but the first third of the book is basically a historiography of geopolitics, including Mackinder). If you want an academic gigantic overview of global politics in general then I would recommend Andrew Heywood’s textbook Global Politics. I do not remember if classic geopolitics theorists are included in there but many international relations theorists, including liberal, constructivists and realists (the three key schools of thought), can be found in there.

You were watching a movie with extremely apparent themes and messaging, revolving around what could come from the evolution of catholicism that could make the catholic church into a possible force of good, along with the dangers of conservative ideology and its detrimental effects on absolutely everything, loving it the whole way, but when you got to the ending, which is a culmination of all of its ideas, you suddenly switch to disliking it? Gonna be honest I just think you flat out didn’t get it at all.

I have not read that many books on the second world war but for fiction I would recommend V2 (also by Robert Harris) which is about the Nazi rocket program in 1944. For non-fiction I would recommend The Third Reich at War by Richard Evans which is a readable history of WW2 with a big focus on Germany.

@@WilliamsLibrary I am thinking about reading this series. I like Kings books. Everyone has a different perspective (some say it's bloated but ok, some say it's not that bad and has some great moments, some people love them).

@@WilliamsLibrary 15 years is a long time, especially if you really want to read a book series. Harry Turtledove’s Southern Victory (11 books) and World War (8 books) series took me less than a year and a half each to read but that was because I was really into them, unlike the Dark Tower.

@@luizdelsoto If you do I would recommend you to read Salem’s Lot (before Dark Tower V), the Stand (before Dark Tower III) and Insomnia (before Dark Tower IV) for additional context of key characters and events in the series.

It goes against the actual doctrine of the church, there is a reason why we don't allow women into the church besides being an nun... And intersex person is just beyond the belief for any pope to approve that.

No problem. This is my favourite Thomas Sowell book.

You are welcome.

@@eletonjohns8361 How is he a fraud?