The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible - Bastiat Institute

Using governmental
force to impose a
vision on others is
intellectual sloth and
typically results in
unintended, perverse
consequences.
Extract from
Jonathan’s Guiding
Principles
? Economist: a
person who can tell
you what is going
to happen next month
and explain later why
it didn’t.
Chapter 23 • The World’s Oldest Profession
“little secrets” – those secrets which could ruin a
lifetime of savings and leave us destitute. In the
marketplace you can sue people for fraud, but
not in politics. Politicians seem to be rewarded
for fraudulent behaviour.
An economy free of political interventions
would be less vulnerable to fl uctuation and,
perhaps, easier to predict. Thus, we could make
timely adjustments.
Background
Ken: My original thought was that economists
(e-con-o-mist, frauds and obfuscation) sell
their virtue, “prostitute themselves”, to those in
government to get a paycheck and prestige. Also,
Austrian economists often scorn predictions as
fortune-telling.
Beelzebub – heathen oracle – Bible (Kings);
also used in John Milton’s Paradise Lost.
References
Two books by Mark Skousen, The Making of
Modern Economics: The Lives and Ideas of the
Great Thinkers, and Economics on Trial: Lies,
Myths, and Realities. In the latter book, Skousen
takes the ten top selling economics textbooks in
America and reveals their fl aws. He argues that
almost all of the economics taught in American
universities carries a strong bias in favour of
government interventionism. Debunking this
notion is his particular talent.
Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist
Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government
by P. J. O’ Rourke.
It’s Getting Better All The Time – 100 Greatest
Trends of the Last 100 Years by Julian Simon.
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