Hello, LvMI Community!
I am preparing a monograph for the conclusion of my Undergrad Economics course, and I am planning to write about natural resource use and conservation, adopting the Austrian school's approach.
Basically, I would like to show that a free market does not cause resource's irrational degradation and shortage, like most of the people believe.
I would like to ask you for suggestions of texts (articles, books, everything) of Austrian authors that can help me in my research. I appreciate very much your help; it would be an immense one! :)
I believe that I gathered a good quantity of texts, but I still feel that I need more. I'll try to list them here, so you can recommend things that I don't have.
(I got all of them here, at mises.org). I'll write it in smaller format, to save space.
I also believe that Hayek's articles on Knowledge could be helpful (Economics and Knowledge, The Use of Knowledge in Society and The Pretense of Knowledge).
I also found some interesting things in some chapters of Rothbard's books (Egalitarianism... [chapt "Conservation in a Free Market], Power and Market ["Conservation Laws" part] and For a New Liberty [chapt "Conservation, Ecology and Growth"]).
I am planning to read chapter 3 (Natural Resources and the Environment) of "Capitalism", by George Reisman. Is it good? I also ordered Hayek's "The Constitution of Liberty" to read chapter 23, "Agriculture and Natural Resources" (indeed, of course, to read the whole book).
Oh. I also ordered Walter Block's "Economics and the Environment: A Reconciliation".
Well, I think that's all.
In advance, I thank you very much for your help.
The Institution of Property by David Schmidtz ?
Where there is no property there is no justice; a proposition as certain as any demonstration in Euclid
Fools! not to see that what they madly desire would be a calamity to them as no hands but their own could bring
Thank you, nirgrahamUK.
I just downloaded the article and I will read it. However, I read a little about David Schmidtz and I found that he is not exactly an "Austrian" thinker. I am right?
Healing Our World by Mary Ruwart, available on line.
Read any thing that mentions the concept of "the tragedy of the commons". That is a (if not the) central issue.
If I wrote it more than a few weeks ago, I probably hate it by now.
Rothbard's lecture on conservation is also accessible on the Mises Institute Media page. He goes into the nature of how the price mechanism itself enforces a conservation effort without additional legal institutions (EPA and etc).
"The power of liberty going forward is in decentralization. Not in leaders, but in decentralized activism. In a market process." -- liberty student
I took a Enviromental Economics class taught by Walter Block. He used "Free Market Environmentalism" by Terry Lee Anderson, Donald Leal as one of the main texts for the class.
I found it to be pretty good, you can read it online here.
http://books.google.com/books?id=roxpZ6wZQsEC&dq=free+market+environmentalism&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=YxxNSq_nLZqMtgeRt-ynBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4
Please, point out to your class that we live in a mercantalism economy, not a free-market capitalist economy. Besides that, I think Professor Walter E. Block has written a lot about this subject.
To paraphrase Marc Faber: We're all doomed, but that doesn't mean that we can't make money in the process. Rabbi Lapin: "Let's make bricks!" Stephan Kinsella: "Say you and I both want to make a German chocolate cake."
"Resourceship" by Robert Bradley. He puts forward a subjectivist, dynamic, functional theory of mineral resources, as opposed to the objective, static, aggregative neoclassical theory. This is a groundbreaking work.
AnalyticalAnarchism.net - The Positive Political Economy of Anarchism
First, thanks for your answers, everybody. :)
Bogart, I found the "Healing Our World" eBook. I'll check it out. Thanks.
I also already read "Free Market Environmentalism" and lots of things about the tradgedy of the commons.
What I am really loking for (sorry, I think I didn't make it clear in the first place) is something based on the Austrian School's methodology. Rothbard's lecture available in the Media page is the kind of thing that I am looking for -- thanks, ladyattis.
John Brätland's article "Toward a Calculational Theory and Policy of Intergenerational Sustainability" is another good one. He applies the praxeological concepts of human action, calculation, time preference and others to explain the behavior of the resource owner.
Does anyone know any other stuff similar?
Daniel: Please, point out to your class that we live in a mercantalism economy, not a free-market capitalist economy. Besides that, I think Professor Walter E. Block has written a lot about this subject.
Sure! It's funny how people say that we live in a "free market", and all flaws are blamed on it.
Sage: "Resourceship" by Robert Bradley. He puts forward a subjectivist, dynamic, functional theory of mineral resources, as opposed to the objective, static, aggregative neoclassical theory. This is a groundbreaking work.
That's it! Very good. Thank you very much!
Luiz Mario Brotherhood:That's it! Very good. Thank you very much!
Also check out Part III of his book "Capitalism at Work."
Let me know how your paper turns out. I've also got a resource economics paper I'm working on.
Sage: Also check out Part III of his book "Capitalism at Work."
Wow! More, more, more! Hahahaha. (Any more?) Thank you! :)
Sage: Let me know how your paper turns out. I've also got a resource economics paper I'm working on.
Sure! I'll deliver it by the end of this year.It will be in portuguese (I'm from Brazil). But I think I'll translate to english, anyway.
Luiz Mario Brotherhood: Daniel: Please, point out to your class that we live in a mercantalism economy, not a free-market capitalist economy. Besides that, I think Professor Walter E. Block has written a lot about this subject. Sure! It's funny how people say that we live in a "free market", and all flaws are blamed on it.
Here is an outline for the lecture:
Main entry: cap·i·tal·ism Pronunciation:\ˈka-pə-tə-ˌliz-əm, ˈkap-tə-, British also kə-ˈpi-tə-\ Function:noun Date:1877: an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market
Okay, students, where in this (see above) do you see state interference? (pause) nowhere.
Now, does our economic system look anything like this (see below)?
Main Entry:mer·can·til·ism Pronunciation:\-ˌtē-ˌli-zəm, -ˌtī-, -tə-\ Function:noun Date:18381 : the theory or practice of mercantile pursuits : commercialism 2 : an economic system developing during the decay of feudalism to unify and increase the power and especially the monetary wealth of a nation by a strict governmental regulation of the entire national economy usually through policies designed to secure an accumulation of bullion, a favorable balance of trade, the development of agriculture and manufactures, and the establishment of foreign trading monopolies
Luiz Mario Brotherhood: Oh. I also ordered Walter Block's "Economics and the Environment: A Reconciliation".
Where'd you order this book from? I tried getting it but I thought it was out of print?