This Day in History: Industrial Relations professor George W. Taylor was born on this day in 1901. He came up with what is known as the Hemline Index theory. The theory suggests that hemlines on women's dresses rise along with stock prices. In good economies, we get such results as miniskirts (as seen in the 1920s and the 1960s), or in poor economic times, as shown by the 1929 Wall Street Crash, hems can drop almost overnight. Of course this index is almost useless now that many women wear pants.
This Day In History: Economist Frederic Bastiat was born on this day in 1801. I actually have a Bastiat T-shirt. Economics is often called the "Dismal Science" but this became less so with Bastiat often injecting humor into it. Robert Heilbroner writes in his "Worldly Philosophers": "There was...a man who has been almost forgotten in the march of economic ideas. He is Frederic Bastiat, an eccentric Frenchman, who lived from 1801 to 1850, and who in that short space of time and an even shorter space of literary life—six years—brought to bear on economics that most devastating of all weapons: ridicule...Bastiat had a gift for pointing out absurdities; his little book Economic Sophisms is as close to humor as economics has ever come." For instance, in his Candlemakers’ Petition he wrote of candlemakers petitioning the Government to help them combat their enemy the sun, as sunlight was hurting their business.
He was also one of the earliest opponents of Socialism.
This Day in History: Revolutionary Che Guevara was born on this date in 1928. I know that it's trendy to wear Che apparel...but you probably shouldn't. Che Guevara helped establish the first Cuban concentration camp, where he housed people he didn't like: Gays, Jehovah's Witnesses and anyone else that didn't match up to his Socialist Ideal Man. He was a mass murderer that enjoyed torturing animals, and he was a white supremacist who maintained that Africans held their racial purity because they wouldn't bathe. He also described Mexicans as “a band of illiterate Indians.” But none of that matters as Che's likeness has been known as "the face that launched a thousand T-shirts." And there is a certain irony in BUYING a Che shirt, because in doing so you are engaging in the very economic system he sought to overthrow. Jay-Z has been seen wearing Che shirts with BLING (again, a contradiction of the anti-capitalism Che stood for). Even Prince Harry has been seen wearing a Che shirt, but then in the past he has also been seen wearing Nazi outfits so at least he's consistent. Converse used the image of Che Guevara in one of their shoe ad campaigns. In Peru you can BUY "El Che" cigarettes. In France you can BUY "El Ché-Cola." Taco Bell, Leica and many others have used his image. It's delicious that he is being exploited by the Capitalist system he hated.
"Let’s say that all you knew about Adolf Hitler was that he painted scenic pictures, postcards, and houses in Vienna, loved dogs and named his adorable German Shepard 'Blondie,' and frequently expressed solidarity with 'the people.' You might sport a T-shirt adorned with his image if you thought such a charismatic chap was also good-looking in a beret. But your education would be widely regarded as incomplete." Lawrence W Reed
This Day in History: Author L. Frank Baum was born on this day in 1856, and he is best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. While a children's classic, the book was actually an allegory for the politics and economics of the 1890's, with a special interest in bimetallism (a monetary standard where money is backed by gold and silver). The Yellow Brick Road represented the gold standard, and Ruby slippers were originally silver and Oz got its name from the abbreviation of ounces "Oz" in which gold and silver are measured. The Scarecrow represented the American farmers, the Tin Man represented the steel factory workers and the Cowardly Lion was a metaphor for politician William Jennings Bryan. The Wicked Witch of the West represented the American West, and the Winged Monkeys represented the Native Americans. The King of the Winged Monkeys tells Dorothy, "Once we were a free people, living happily in the great forest, flying from tree to tree, eating nuts and fruit and doing just as we pleased without calling anybody master. ... This was many years ago, long before Oz came out of the clouds to rule over this land."
This Day in History: Welsh textile manufacturer Robert Owen was born on this day in 1771. While a successful businessman, he was also a believer in Socialism, and may have even coined the term. About 200 years ago Robert Owen bought land in Ohio to set up a Socialist community. While American may be thought of as a Laissez-Faire country back then, it was also a hotbed of Socialist experimentation, particularly in Ohio. Owen called his community "New Harmony" but like all such Socialist communities, they all failed...usually within 2 years. As Alexander Winston wrote: "They couldn’t run anything properly—flour mill, saw mill, tannery or smithy—and their only solution to problems of production was to write another constitution or make another speech. The industrious soon tired of supporting the idle. From the Nashoba, Tennessee Owenite settlement, leader Frances Wright informed Owen that 'cooperation has nigh killed us all,' and departed. Within two years every Owenite venture, fourteen in all, disintegrated."
Historic Failures of Applied Socialism in Ohio by Daniel J Ryan 1920
This Day in History: Economist Friedrich Hayek was born on this day in 1899. He is best known for writing The Road to Serfdom which went on to sell 2 million copies, an outstanding achievement for an economics book.
Milton Friedman once said of Hayek: "There is no figure who had more of an influence, no person had more of an influence on the intellectuals behind the Iron Curtain than Friedrich Hayek. His books were translated and published by the underground and black market editions, read widely, and undoubtedly influenced the climate of opinion that ultimately brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union."
President Ronald Reagan listed Hayek as among the two or three people who most influenced his philosophy, and Margaret Thatcher often carried one of his books into Parliament with her.
Many Books you won't believe are online for free...but you may have to hurry before they are taken down. I did not post any of these books, these are simply books I found in my online travels.
For a list of all of my digital books and books on diskclick here
