Like so many Americans who have received or are expecting their tax rebate check, you probably imagined what you’d purchase once you got the windfall in the mail. As reported on many cable news shows, ordinary Americans are spending their money at Wal-Mart, paying down bills, or filling up their gas tanks to capacity.
If you are reading this article, you are probably no ordinary American; you are most likely someone extremely interested in learning as much as you can about liberty and its economic counterpart, the Austrian School.
If you were like me, you probably have or had a natural aversion to the subject of economics since the mainstream school of it deals with (gulp) math and reduces the individual down to a mere digit in some statistician’s graph. Just turning a few pages in your average economics primer is enough to induce the gag reflex.
Of course, I had no idea that economics had four major schools and that the Austrian school was one of them. It’s no wonder I never heard the likes of Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Henry Hazlitt until last year, since a cursory look in the index of any mainstream economics book will reveal that there are only two economists of note cited: John Maynard Keynes and Karl Marx.
It wasn’t until last summer when I heard Ron Paul use certain phrases such as the gold standard, inflation tax, the business cycle, and several others that persuaded me to learn more. While researching, the sites that popped up first were LewRockwell.com and Mises.org. In the following months, learning about liberty and the Austrian school morphed into a hobby of sorts, where I spent many hours of my spare time reading books on economics and libertarianism, writing a few articles for LewRockwell.com, and having a myriad of conversations with friends and family about our future economic landscape.
Still, I want to learn more. I know that as a busy teddy bear wholesaler and an aspiring cartoon series creator, I have no will to return to school to get an advanced degree in economics. Nor do I want to spend the rest of my days simply scanning for new books and articles that match my interest. Thankfully, the Ludwig von Mises Institute has put together a self-directed program that is the best course of action for a person such as myself.
Therefore, when I receive my $600 government check in the mail, my first purchase will be the Mises Institute Home Study Course in Austrian Economics. If the government wants us to use our checks to jumpstart the economy, then I shall multiply its impact by jumpstarting my own economic education.
That same day, I will use another $50 to renew my membership early in the Ludwig von Mises Institute and the remaining $200 I will use towards a road trip I will take this fall to attend the Supporters Summit in Auburn.
Maybe you will be like me and make this kind of investment towards your education. But if you are not as ambitious, I ask you to at least donate what you can to the Mises Institute. The institute works on voluntary contributions alone and does not, as you might expect, accept government grants. Even if you cannot donate today, maybe one day you will, and in the meantime give yourself a goal and read as many of the free books and essays you can at Mises.org. For it was Ludwig von Mises himself who said:
"Whether we like it or not, it is a fact that economics cannot remain an esoteric branch of knowledge accessible only to small groups of scholars and specialists. Economics deals with society’s fundamental problems; it concerns everyone and belongs to all. It is the main and proper study of every citizen."
June 18, 2008
