Economics

I just finished reading Economics in One Lesson, a veritable manifesto of libertarian economics by "Austrian" Henry Hazlitt.

I strongly recommend everyone gain some basic understanding of economics, and although this book was pretty slanted toward "free market," "no government," and all the other tenants of libertarianism, it was thought-provoking. And It forced me to wrestle with assumptions I've had about various government programs over the years.

The point is not to read (and understand) basic economic texts with the hope of becoming indoctrinated. That's easy. The point is to just learn and understand some basic stuff that a large chunk of the population have never considered, save for taking basic econ in high school. And I'm not claiming this based on elitism, just based on how many conversations I've had with people where economics are fundamentally misunderstood.