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viii Economics in One Lessonsubject it can be truly said that they are classics? I would wager very,very few, if any at all.There is nothing that pleases a teacher more than when thatexpression of understanding lights up a student’s face. The cartoonsdepict this phenomenon in the form of a light bulb appearing rightabove the depiction of the character. Well, let me tell you: I have gottenmore “ahas” out of introductory students who have read thisbook than from any other. I warrant that there have been more conversionsto the free market philosophy from this one economics bookthan, perhaps, from all others put together. It is just that stupendous.The only thing I regret in this regard is that never again will I read thisbook for the first time. That, gentle reader, is a privilege I greatly envyyou for having.A word about style. The content, here, we can take for granted.But the number of economists who could really write can be countedupon one’s fingers, but Hazlitt is certainly one of them. His verbiagefairly leaps off the page, grabbing you by the neck. In fact, I now venturea very minor “criticism”: the author of this book is so elegant awordsmith that sometimes, rarely, I find myself so marveling at hispresentation, that I take my eye off the “ball” of the underlying economicsmessage.But enough of my personal slavering, drooling appreciation for Economicsin One Lesson. Let us now get down to some specifics. The core ofthis book is, surely, the lesson: “the art of economics consists in lookingnot merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy;it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely forone group but for all groups.” Coupled with Hazlitt’s suspicion of the“special pleading of selfish interests,” and his magnificent rendition ofBastiat’s “broken-window” example, the plan of Economics in One Lessonis clear: drill these insights into the reader in the first few chapters, andthen apply them, relentlessly, without fear or favor, to a whole host ofspecific examples. Every widespread economic fallacy embraced bypundits, politicians, editorialists, clergy, academics is given the back ofthe hand they so richly deserve by this author: that public works promoteeconomic welfare, that unions and union-inspired minimum