Comparative Economic Systems

This page offers supplementary links to in-class lectures. 

The theory and practice of market capitalism

The Power of Choice: The Life and Ideas of Milton Friedman

President John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address - "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country."

Libertarian PBS

Should you need the government's permission to work?

Georgia licensing boards

Mental Deficiency Act 1913

Index of Economic Freedom

U.S. economy falls to an all-time low in the Heritage Foundation's Freedom Index Rating

Ron Swanson loves capitalism and libertarianism

The Hollywood Blacklist, explained

Targeted by the Stasi: Revisiting the past

Berlin Wall 30th Anniversary: Inside Stasi Prison

Stasi Barkas

Milton Friedman - Case against equal pay for equal work

Life of Adam Smith - Marginal Revolution

Adam Smith - Britannica

Smith - Wealth of Nations - B1 Ch1 "The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is anywhere directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labour."

Smith - Wealth of Nations - B1 Ch2 "The division of labour, from which so many advantages are derived, is not originally the effect of any human wisdom, which foresees and intends that general opulence to which it gives occasion. It is the necessary, though very slow and gradual consequence of a certain propensity in human nature which has in view no such extensive utility; the propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another."

Roberts - "It's a Wonderful Loaf" - "It’s the product of our actions but no single mind’s designed it / There’s magic without wizards if you just know how to find it"

Mickey Mouse and copyright law

I, Pencil

I, Pencil - Milton Friedman

The theory and history of Marxism and socialism

Philosophical precursors

The French Revolution and Napoleon

The French Revolution: Crash Course European History

Marechal and Babeuf - "Manifesto of the Equals" - "We aspire to live and die equal, the way we were born: we want real equality or death; this is what we need. And we'll have this real equality, at whatever the cost. Woe on those who stand between it and us! Woe on those who resist a wish so firmly expressed. The French Revolution is nothing but the precursor of another revolution, one that will greater, more solemn, and which will be the last."

Utopian socialism

Saint-Simon - "Letters from an Inhabitant of Geneva to His Contemporaries" - "Open a subscription in honour of Newton's memory: allow everyone, no matter who he may be, to subscribe as much as he wishes."

Crossroad Bruderhof, Minneapolis, Minn. - "Crossroad Community currently consists of two couples, a two-year-old, and several single people sharing a rented home, working in the city, and pooling our income."

Bruderhof FAQ - "We hope that our communities can help people to have a vision of what society can be like: a place where each child and older person is loved and taken care of, a place where we work against loneliness and poverty, where marriages stay together, where there isn’t violence, and where people willingly give up all their possessions for a cause that is greater than themselves."

What is the Bruderhof? A look inside...

Twin Oaks Community, Louisa County, Va. 

Have you ever wanted to drop out of capitalism?

Koinonia Farm, Sumter County, Ga.

About Koinonia - "We are Christians called to live together in intentional community sharing a life of prayer, work, study, service and fellowship. We seek to embody peacemaking, sustainability, and radical sharing. While honoring people of all backgrounds and faiths, we strive to demonstrate the way of Jesus as an alternative to materialism, militarism and racism."

The Marxian worldview

Karl Marx: The Socialist Revolutionary | Biographics

Marx for Beginners | Rius

Marxism: Philosophy and Economics | Sowell

Fundamentals of Marx: Dialectics

The Communist Manifesto | Marx and Engels

How East Germany solved a coffee shortage