Economics in One Lesson taught me "see" economics the way an painter sees a landscape or a programmer sees a program. The painter and programmer see their subje

Economics in One Lesson taught me "see" economics the way an painter sees a landscape or a programmer sees a program. The painter and programmer see their subjects with more understanding than the layman. Intuitively, it seems obvious that interference with people's free economic choices hurts the economy. Hazlitt helped me see why. The secret is to imagine what the economy would be like without interference. What the interference displaces. After laying out the basic approach in the first chapter, Hazlitt spends the rest of the book applying the principle to the various ways politicians tend to interfere with economic freedom. He explains clearly, in basic English anyone can understand, what each kind of interference changes what would otherwise have happened. So for example, Hazlitt starts with the broken window fallacy: that the ruffian who breaks a shopkeeper's front window is really a public benefactor because he gives employment to the glazier. Hazlitt explains that while the glazier is benefited by the broken window, the overall economy is not, because, had the window not been broken, then shopkeeper would have, not just his window, but a new suit that he would have purchased but for having to pay for the window. In short: When the window is broken, the shopkeeper ends up with a new window and glazier ends up with some money. Had the window not been broken, the shopkeeper still has his window but also has a new suit, and the tailor has some money. The broken window fallacy is still in use today by economists and politicians who can sometimes be heard explaining that war, natural disasters, and other calamities are good for the economy. Hazlitt goes on from there to address the minimum wage, price controls, rent control, government subsidies to various industries, etc. For each, Hazlitt helped me see beyond the visible "winner", that such policies are designed to help, to the unseen "losers": the workers who aren't employed and the projects and industries that fail to develop as a result. As a result of reading the book, I find it much easier to explain why certain government programs are harmful.