segunda-feira, 17 de dezembro de 2012
domingo, 16 de dezembro de 2012
Colapso do estado
Folks, if you want to see how the state collapses in the future, this is the direction to look. It won’t happen through politics. It won’t happen by top-down reform. It won’t happen even through seminars. It will happen through the trial and error of entrepreneurship, because the market will not sit still. Faced with the ghastly costs of the anachronistic nation-state, it will continue to find creative and surprising ways around the coercive apparatus, effectively inventing new realms of freedom that permit progress to occur.
Every act of entrepreneurship is revolutionary and rooted in the anarchist spirit. It strikes at the heart of the status quo. It dares to be dissatisfied with what is. It imagines something new and better. It brings about unexpected, unapproved, and progressive change by adding a new dimension of experience to how we understand ourselves and how we interact with others.
Without entrepreneurship, history would lack forward motion, our understanding of the uniqueness of our time in this world would be forever undefined, and society itself would atrophy and finally die. With it, every attempt to control and freeze the world faces opposition and long-run failure.
History teaches that those who dare stand in the way of human progress will eventually be run over. Yes, there is plenty of friction and too many victims as we get from here to there. But we will get there, one creative act of disobedience at a time.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Tucker
Read more: How the State Will Die http://dailyreckoning.com/how-the-state-will-die/#ixzz2FG0JjmqK
Every act of entrepreneurship is revolutionary and rooted in the anarchist spirit. It strikes at the heart of the status quo. It dares to be dissatisfied with what is. It imagines something new and better. It brings about unexpected, unapproved, and progressive change by adding a new dimension of experience to how we understand ourselves and how we interact with others.
Without entrepreneurship, history would lack forward motion, our understanding of the uniqueness of our time in this world would be forever undefined, and society itself would atrophy and finally die. With it, every attempt to control and freeze the world faces opposition and long-run failure.
History teaches that those who dare stand in the way of human progress will eventually be run over. Yes, there is plenty of friction and too many victims as we get from here to there. But we will get there, one creative act of disobedience at a time.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Tucker
Read more: How the State Will Die http://dailyreckoning.com/how-the-state-will-die/#ixzz2FG0JjmqK
Como ter boas ideias
Vídeo sketch sobre o tema : De onde vão boas ideias?
One of our most innovative, popular thinkers takes on-in exhilarating style-one of our key questions: Where do good ideas come from?
With Where Good Ideas Come From, Steven Johnson pairs the insight of his bestselling Everything Bad Is Good for You and the dazzling erudition of The Ghost Map and The Invention of Air to address an urgent and universal question: What sparks the flash of brilliance? How does groundbreaking innovation happen? Answering in his infectious, culturally omnivorous style, using his fluency in fields from neurobiology to popular culture, Johnson provides the complete, exciting, and encouraging story of how we generate the ideas that push our careers, our lives, our society, and our culture forward.
Beginning with Charles Darwin's first encounter with the teeming ecosystem of the coral reef and drawing connections to the intellectual hyperproductivity of modern megacities and to the instant success of YouTube, Johnson shows us that the question we need to ask is, What kind of environment fosters the development of good ideas? His answers are never less than revelatory, convincing, and inspiring as Johnson identifies the seven key principles to the genesis of such ideas, and traces them across time and disciplines.
Most exhilarating is Johnson's conclusion that with today's tools and environment, radical innovation is extraordinarily accessible to those who know how to cultivate it. Where Good Ideas Come From is essential reading for anyone who wants to know how to come up with tomorrow's great ideas.
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Armas e crimes
Veja vídeo palestra de Johon Lott sobre
More guns, less crimes
In a talk given on the very day a gunman was apprehended at the University of Austin, American senior research scientist at the University of Maryland and gun rights expert John Lott explains why guns bans only serve to increase gun crime rates, why the pilots should be armed, and how statistics prove that since the DC handgun ban was lifted, there has been a dramatic drop in the murder rate.
Lott points to his research which proves that there isn't a place in the world where a gun ban lowers gun crime, in fact stricter firearms regulation habitually leads to an increase in murder rates, because the only people who follow such regulations are law-abiding citizens who turn in their guns and thus leave themselves vulnerable to armed criminals who don't obey the law.
Speaking on the subject of pilots being armed, Lott points out that up until 1979, pilots were mandated to carry with them a loaded handgun and throughout decades of this policy there is not one example handguns causing a problem on an airliner, demolishing the innumerable "what if" hypothetical arguments of those who oppose arming the pilots, as well as the arguments against having concealed carry on college campuses.
Lott details statistics that show since the Washington DC handgun ban was lifted, there has been a huge drop in murder rates, a fact that has received virtually no news coverage in the anti-second amendment establishment media. Crimes using guns since the ban was lifted fell by about three times as fast as other crimes not involving guns. Alternatively, since the Chicago gun ban in 1982, Lott documents how gun crime soared in both Chicago and surrounding areas.
http://www.prisonplanet.tv/
More guns, less crimes
In a talk given on the very day a gunman was apprehended at the University of Austin, American senior research scientist at the University of Maryland and gun rights expert John Lott explains why guns bans only serve to increase gun crime rates, why the pilots should be armed, and how statistics prove that since the DC handgun ban was lifted, there has been a dramatic drop in the murder rate.
Lott points to his research which proves that there isn't a place in the world where a gun ban lowers gun crime, in fact stricter firearms regulation habitually leads to an increase in murder rates, because the only people who follow such regulations are law-abiding citizens who turn in their guns and thus leave themselves vulnerable to armed criminals who don't obey the law.
Speaking on the subject of pilots being armed, Lott points out that up until 1979, pilots were mandated to carry with them a loaded handgun and throughout decades of this policy there is not one example handguns causing a problem on an airliner, demolishing the innumerable "what if" hypothetical arguments of those who oppose arming the pilots, as well as the arguments against having concealed carry on college campuses.
Lott details statistics that show since the Washington DC handgun ban was lifted, there has been a huge drop in murder rates, a fact that has received virtually no news coverage in the anti-second amendment establishment media. Crimes using guns since the ban was lifted fell by about three times as fast as other crimes not involving guns. Alternatively, since the Chicago gun ban in 1982, Lott documents how gun crime soared in both Chicago and surrounding areas.
http://www.prisonplanet.tv/
Publicação sem editora
Ligação direta com o leitor
Por André Miranda
Com a popularização de ferramentas para produção e venda de ebooks e o sucesso de obras lançadas sem mediação de grandes editoras, escritores investem na autopublicação, que dá nova cara ao mercado, inclusive no Brasil, onde a Amazon começou suas operações há duas semanas
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sábado, 15 de dezembro de 2012
Universidades americanas em dívida
Degrees of Debt
This series examines the implications of soaring college costs and the indebtedness of students and their families
A decade-long spending binge to build academic buildings, dormitories and recreational facilities — some of them inordinately lavish to attract students — has left colleges and universities saddled with large amounts of debt. Oftentimes, students are stuck picking up the bill.
Overall debt levels more than doubled from 2000 to 2011 at the more than 500 institutions rated by Moody’s, according to inflation-adjusted data compiled for The New York Times by the credit rating agency. In the same time, the amount of cash, pledged gifts and investments that colleges maintain declined more than 40 percent relative to the amount they owe.
With revenue pinched at institutions big and small, financial experts and college officials are sounding alarms about the consequences of the spending and borrowing.
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sexta-feira, 14 de dezembro de 2012
O massacre de Connecticut em prespectiva
Número de mortes por arma de fogo em 2011:
Austrália: 35
Inglaterra e Irlanda: 39
Alemanha:194
Canadá: 200
EUA: 9.484,
Brasil: 35.556
Tom Woods' lista de leitura
What Should You Read?
Recently
by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.: Florida
Senate President: I Didn’t Really Mean I Would Shoot Dissidents;
You Took Me Out of Context
If you're like me, you are annoyed by books that teach you three new things. My time is limited. I like books that are full of things I didn't know, or ideas I'd never thought of.
The books I recommend below belong in that category. They teach you something new and unexpected on every page. And they are a perfect antidote to the propaganda fed to us in the ideological prison camps where most of us spent our formative years. I list them in no particular order.
The Revolution: A Manifesto, by Ron Paul. This is another good one for beginners. It has a good track record as a proselytizing device.
Democracy: The God that Failed, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Just read it. Trust me on this.
The Quest for Community, by Robert Nisbet. Here is a graduate course in political philosophy. Except in this one, the state is not the glorious summit of civilization and the indispensable source of human flourishing. As the new edition explains, "Nisbet argued that the rise of the powerful modern state had eroded the sources of community – the family, the neighborhood, the church, the guild. Alienation and loneliness inevitably resulted. But as the traditional ties that bind fell away, the human impulse toward community led people to turn even more to the government itself, allowing statism – even totalitarianism – to flourish."
The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays. Features essays by Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Hayek, Gottfried Haberler, and Murray N. Rothbard. An effective introduction to the Austrian theory of the business cycle. You can read or listen to it online.
Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays, by Murray N. Rothbard. The quality of the essays in this book is astounding. You will not think the same way ever again after reading “Anatomy of the State” and “War, Peace, and the State,” to name just two. You can read it online.
After you read these, I recommend the following:
A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism, by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. Hoppe’s books put everything together for me. You can read this one online.
Man, Economy, and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles, by Murray N. Rothbard. This one, and the two that follow, are for the especially ambitious. This is a systematic exposition of Austrian economics. The sheer elegance of the Austrian system is on impressive display here. The entire text is available online. A study guide is available for purchase and online.
Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles, by Jesús Huerta de Soto. Here is the Austrian theory on money, banking, and business cycles, presented in systematic fashion, and compared with the Chicago and Keynesian alternatives. I have a friend who was so impressed by this book that he learned Spanish so he could pursue his Ph.D. under the author in Spain. It is also available in pdf.
I could name other books, naturally, but to my mind these are the absolutely indispensable ones.
One of the goals of my own books, for that matter, has been to get people up to speed on various topics as quickly and with as little exertion on their part as possible. Rollback, my most recent title, covers a very wide range of topics and replies to the most common objections to the free society. I was delighted to hear a student tell me just the other day, “I realized as I was reading this book that it would help me win debates.” That was part of the idea, for sure. I tried to do the same thing in some of my other titles, like The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, 33 Questions About American History, Meltdown [on the financial crisis], and Nullification.
Fonte
quinta-feira, 13 de dezembro de 2012
Classe média diminiui na Alemanha
Einkommensverteilung Deutschlands Mittelschicht schrumpft dramatisch
Die Mittelschicht in der Bundesrepublik ist in den vergangenen Jahren um mehr als fünf Millionen Menschen kleiner geworden. Laut einer DIW-Studie profitiert nur noch eine kleine Elite vom wachsenden Wohlstand. Die Forscher warnen vor einer sozialen Spaltung des Landes.
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Texto do estudo
Mais info
Die Mittelschicht in der Bundesrepublik ist in den vergangenen Jahren um mehr als fünf Millionen Menschen kleiner geworden. Laut einer DIW-Studie profitiert nur noch eine kleine Elite vom wachsenden Wohlstand. Die Forscher warnen vor einer sozialen Spaltung des Landes.
Mais
Texto do estudo
Mais info
Classe média diminiui na Alemanha
Einkommensverteilung Deutschlands Mittelschicht schrumpft dramatisch
Die Mittelschicht in der Bundesrepublik ist in den vergangenen Jahren um mehr als fünf Millionen Menschen kleiner geworden. Laut einer DIW-Studie profitiert nur noch eine kleine Elite vom wachsenden Wohlstand. Die Forscher warnen vor einer sozialen Spaltung des Landes.
Mais
Die Mittelschicht in der Bundesrepublik ist in den vergangenen Jahren um mehr als fünf Millionen Menschen kleiner geworden. Laut einer DIW-Studie profitiert nur noch eine kleine Elite vom wachsenden Wohlstand. Die Forscher warnen vor einer sozialen Spaltung des Landes.
Mais
quarta-feira, 12 de dezembro de 2012
Holdomor
"The Soviet Story" é um premiado documentário de 2008 do cientista político Edvins Snore. Com base em 10 anos de pesquisas, além de depoimentos de vítimas e opiniões de especialistas, a obra mostra os horrores do comunismo soviético e sua univitelina fraternidade com o nacional-socialismo de Hitler.
O documentário possui cenas fortes e mostra os crimes de lesa-humanidade cometidos pelo regime comunista da URSS antes, durante e depois da 2ª Guerra Mundial, incluindo torturas físicas, execuções em massa, experimentos médicos com seres humanos e outras atrocidades.
Assista
O documentário possui cenas fortes e mostra os crimes de lesa-humanidade cometidos pelo regime comunista da URSS antes, durante e depois da 2ª Guerra Mundial, incluindo torturas físicas, execuções em massa, experimentos médicos com seres humanos e outras atrocidades.
Assista
Searl sobre lingua e a mente moderma
In this the first part of our interview with Dr. John Searle we discuss the difference between human language and animal communication and how literacy acted as the 'enabling technology' that gave rise to the modern human mind and the institutions of civilization.
Assista
Assista
Educação no Brasil - altos gastos, baixos resultados
O rombo da educação
O rombo da educação é o cabide de empregos de 46 bilhões de reais
Há uns dois meses, quis descobrir o total de funcionários do setor da educação no Brasil. O número de professores é bem conhecido dos pesquisadores, pois está na casa dos 2 milhões há alguns anos, mas não sabia quantos seriam os funcionários do setor que não são docentes.
Tenho um verdadeiro arsenal de dados estatísticos sobre a educação brasileira e internacional. Procurei em todos, inclusive em algumas sinopses estatísticas da educação básica, que são arquivos com mais de 200 planilhas, que informam até quantas turmas do ensino fundamental com menos de 4 horas/aula por dia há no Acre. Mas o número de funcionários não aparece em nem um único documento. Não está disponível para consulta em lugar algum. Fiz então uma consulta direta ao Inep, órgão do MEC responsável por avaliações e estatísticas. A resposta solícita veio no mesmo dia: incluindo professores, são mais de 5 milhões de funcionários na área da educação no Brasil, pouco mais de 4 milhões deles na rede pública.
Fiquei embasbacado com esse dado. Não apenas pelo gigantismo do número total – seus 5 milhões de membros fazem com que essa seja a quarta maior categoria profissional do Brasil, atrás apenas dos agricultores, vendedores e domésticas –, mas especialmente pelo fato de termos 3 milhões de funcionários longe da sala de aula, um número 50% maior do que o de professores.
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Há uns dois meses, quis descobrir o total de funcionários do setor da educação no Brasil. O número de professores é bem conhecido dos pesquisadores, pois está na casa dos 2 milhões há alguns anos, mas não sabia quantos seriam os funcionários do setor que não são docentes.
Tenho um verdadeiro arsenal de dados estatísticos sobre a educação brasileira e internacional. Procurei em todos, inclusive em algumas sinopses estatísticas da educação básica, que são arquivos com mais de 200 planilhas, que informam até quantas turmas do ensino fundamental com menos de 4 horas/aula por dia há no Acre. Mas o número de funcionários não aparece em nem um único documento. Não está disponível para consulta em lugar algum. Fiz então uma consulta direta ao Inep, órgão do MEC responsável por avaliações e estatísticas. A resposta solícita veio no mesmo dia: incluindo professores, são mais de 5 milhões de funcionários na área da educação no Brasil, pouco mais de 4 milhões deles na rede pública.
Fiquei embasbacado com esse dado. Não apenas pelo gigantismo do número total – seus 5 milhões de membros fazem com que essa seja a quarta maior categoria profissional do Brasil, atrás apenas dos agricultores, vendedores e domésticas –, mas especialmente pelo fato de termos 3 milhões de funcionários longe da sala de aula, um número 50% maior do que o de professores.
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terça-feira, 11 de dezembro de 2012
A origem do capitalismo segundo Hirschman
The Passions and the Interests [Paperback] Albert O. Hirschman
In this volume, Albert Hirschman reconstructs the intellectual climate of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to illuminate the intricate ideological transformation that occurred, wherein the pursuit of material interests --so long condemned as the deadly sin of avarice --was assigned the role of containing the unruly and destructive passions of man. Hirschman here offers a new interpretation for the rise of capitalism, one that emphasizes the continuities between old and new, in contrast to the assumption of a sharp break that is a common feature of both Marxian and Weberian thinking. Among the insights presented here is the ironical finding that capitalism was originally supposed to accomplish exactly what was soon denounced as its worst feature: the repression of the passions in favor of the "harmless," if one-dimensional, interests of commercial life. To portray this lengthy ideological change as an endogenous process, Hirschman draws on the writings of a large number of thinkers, including Montesquieu, Sir James Steuart, and Adam Smith.
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Albert O. Hirschman (1915-2012)
Albert O. Hirschman: Life and Work
Albert O. Hirschman has passed away. Hirschman was a deep thinker whose work has been influential in many fields. Most famously with the must-read Exit, Voice and Loyalty. I am also a fan of The Passions and the Interests his study of ideological transformations in the 17th and 18th century which promoted the pursuit of material interests as a way to tame the passions and thus opened the way to capitalism (profitably read alongside McCloskey’s Bourgeois Virtues). Hirschman’s early work in development, on backwards and forwards linkages, is now being rediscovered and formalized. Tyler looks at Hirschman’s work as it relates to development in a video at MRUniversity. Tyler also wrote in 2006:
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4 vagas relações internacionais UFS
A Universidade Federal de Sergipe abriu concurso para o Nucleo de Graduação em Relacoes Internacionais. As vagas do departamento sao destinadas a diplomados em Relações Internacionais e nas áreas afins (Economia, Ciência Política, História, Sociologia e Direito). São quatro vagas de professores, duas com exigencia mínima de doutorado e duas com exigencia mínima de mestrado.
Detalhes do curso e do departamento podem ser encontrados na seguinte página: www.nuri.gid-ufs.org
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Detalhes do curso e do departamento podem ser encontrados na seguinte página: www.nuri.gid-ufs.org
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segunda-feira, 10 de dezembro de 2012
Alèm da democracia
Beyond Democracy: Why democracy does not lead to solidarity, prosperity and liberty but to social conflict, runaway spending and a tyrannical government [Paperback]
Frank Karsten(Author), Karel Beckman (Author)
Democracy is widely considered to be the best political system imaginable. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that democracy has become a secular religion. The largest political faith on earth. To criticize the democratic ideal is to risk being regarded an enemy of civilized society. Yet that is precisely what Karel Beckman and Frank Karsten propose to do. In this provocative and highly readable book, they tackle the last political taboo: the idea that our salvation lies in democracy. With simple, straightforward arguments they show that democracy, in contrast to popular belief, does not lead to freedom, civilization, prosperity, peace, and the rule of law, but the opposite: to loss of freedom, social conflict, runaway government spending, a lower standard of living and the subversion of individual rights. They debunk 13 great myths with which democracy is usually defended. What is more, they offer an appealing alternative: a society based on individual freedom and voluntary social relations. Do you wonder why government keeps growing bigger and the public debt keeps getting higher, while your freedom and prosperity look ever more threatened? After reading his book, you won’t wonder anymore – you know why it is happening and what can be done about it. Beyond Democracy is a groundbreaking and fascinating book for everyone who wants to better understand current social problems and the economic crisis. More info on beyonddemocracy.net
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domingo, 9 de dezembro de 2012
Ignorância racional
Knowledge About Ignorance: New Directions in the Study of Political Information
Ilya Somin
George Mason University School of Law
July 12, 2006
Critical Review, Vol. 18, Nos. 1-3, pp. 255-278, 2006 (Symposium on Political Knowledge)
George Mason Law & Economics Research Paper No. 06-30
Abstract:
For decades, scholars have recognized that most citizens have little or no political knowledge, and that it is in fact rational for the average voter to make little effort to acquire political information. This article shows that rational ignorance is fully compatible with the so-called paradox of voting because it will often be rational for citizens to vote, but irrational for them to become well-informed. Furthermore, rational ignorance leads not only to inadequate acquisition of political information but also to ineffective use of such information as citizens do possess. The combination of these two problems has fundamental implications for a variety of issues in public policy and international affairs, including the desirable size and scope of government, the need for judicial review, the division of power within a federal system, and the conduct of the War on Terror. Number of Pages in PDF File: 25
Keywords: Constitutional law, collective choice, voting, information, rational choice, federalism, elections
sábado, 8 de dezembro de 2012
Estudar no Brasil não é fácil
A tragédia do estudante sério no Brasil
Olavo de CarvalhoDiário do
Comércio, 12 de fevereiro de 2006
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Antifragile
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/a49f8514-3329-11e2-8e44-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2EUf86qtv
"... what advice can Taleb offer? His central argument is encapsulated in the title. Until now, Taleb says, modern society has generally assumed that people, systems or institutions fell into two camps: either they were fragile (and likely to break when shocks occur) or robust (and thus able to resist shocks without being impacted at all). Taleb insists there is a third category of people, institutions and systems that are resilient in a way we have been unable to articulate: they survive shocks not because they are immovable but precisely because they do change, bending in the face of stress; adapting and learning. This is the quality that he describes as “antifragile”. (In the US the book is being published with the rather more explicit subtitle “Things that Gain from Disorder”.)
Taleb goes on to explain how this works: while nation-states tend to be fragile (because they are highly dependent on one vision of the nation), city-states tend to be antifragile (because they can adapt and learn from history). Careers that are based on one large employer can be fragile but careers that are flexible and entrepreneurial are antifragile, because they can move with changing times. Similarly, the banking system is fragile, while Silicon Valley is antifragile; governments that are highly indebted are fragile, while those (such as Sweden) which have learnt from past mistakes and refuse to assume too much debt are antifragile. And Switzerland is presented as one of the most antifragile places of all, partly because its decentralised structure allows for plenty of experimentation.
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"... what advice can Taleb offer? His central argument is encapsulated in the title. Until now, Taleb says, modern society has generally assumed that people, systems or institutions fell into two camps: either they were fragile (and likely to break when shocks occur) or robust (and thus able to resist shocks without being impacted at all). Taleb insists there is a third category of people, institutions and systems that are resilient in a way we have been unable to articulate: they survive shocks not because they are immovable but precisely because they do change, bending in the face of stress; adapting and learning. This is the quality that he describes as “antifragile”. (In the US the book is being published with the rather more explicit subtitle “Things that Gain from Disorder”.)
Taleb goes on to explain how this works: while nation-states tend to be fragile (because they are highly dependent on one vision of the nation), city-states tend to be antifragile (because they can adapt and learn from history). Careers that are based on one large employer can be fragile but careers that are flexible and entrepreneurial are antifragile, because they can move with changing times. Similarly, the banking system is fragile, while Silicon Valley is antifragile; governments that are highly indebted are fragile, while those (such as Sweden) which have learnt from past mistakes and refuse to assume too much debt are antifragile. And Switzerland is presented as one of the most antifragile places of all, partly because its decentralised structure allows for plenty of experimentation.
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Bastiat
O que se vê e o que não se vê - de Frèdèric Bastiat
A série "O Que se Vê e o Que Não se Vê" de Bastiat que inspira o XXVI Fórum da Liberdade é reveladora e acessível para todos os públicos. Transita da equivocada visão de que a destruição pode gerar riqueza, passando pela ilusão de que obras sem utilidade podem ser benéficas por gerarem empregos, pela falsa ideia de que as máquinas prejudicam os trabalhadores mais simples, pelos problemas da desenfreada concessão de crédito por políticas públicas, até a importância que têm na sociedade os indivíduos que poupam, dentre tantos outros excertos de grande interesse e utilidade.Faça o download do e-book
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