Economics for Naive Hippies

[redblackandgay]

So my politics are based almost entirely on social issues, equality and anti-authoritarianism. I know absolutely nothing about economics. Can anybody recommend a decent book as an introduction to economic theory in a post-capital society? Particularly one compatible with anarcho-communism but I'll take what I can get, I'm always willing to learn :P

[Ocean Seal]

Honestly, I would recommend Michael Parenti or Noam Chomsky they are quite good introductions for important economic subjects like the prison industrial complex among other things.

[Yuppie Grinder]

I'd get a Marx and Engels reader.

[Einkarl]

You can never go wrong with Das Kapital. I would also recommend looking through the Marxist Internet Archive they have a selection of not just Marxists but anarchist writings.

[Queen Mab]

Richard Wolff, David Harvey and Andrew Kliman are good contemporary Marxist economists.

[Comrade Jacob]

Marx. Engels. Lenin. Stalin. Mao.

[Trap Queen Voxxy]

Economics for Dummies.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/519J9D137RL.jpg

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Contending Economic Theories by Wolff and Resnick gives you a good overview of three main strands of economic theory: Marxism, Keynesianism (i.e. social democracy, big state welfare etc.) and classical economics (i.e. free market economics). It's quite an accessible book.

I'd suggest you stay away from big academic tomes like Das Kapital to start with. You won't understand them, you'll get bored, and you'll end up dis-illusioned with the idea of thinking about economics. Economics can be a dismal science, but the ideas of how to organise society are important to us, and some of them are contained within the academic field of Economics.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

SHIT! I DEFINITELY JUST FOLLOWED THE LEAD OF OTHER POSTERS INSTEAD OF CAREFULLY READING THE OP. CONSEQUENTLY, I POSTED BOOKS ABOUT CAPITALISM, RATHER THAN A POST-CAPITALIST ECONOMIC ORDER.

Here's the original post I made:
I recommend the best thing CrimethInc. has ever produced - arguably one of the only good things - Work (http://crimethinc.com/books/work.html) as a pretty decent introduction to "the dismal science". I haven't been able to find it for free in .pdf format yet (because CrimethInc. are hilariously hypocritical posers), but I'll keep looking and post it when I do.

In terms of "the classics" Marx's Value, Price, and Profit (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1865/value-price-profit/) and Wage Labour and Capital (http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1847/wage-labour/) are both less herculean tasks than Capital.

Also, since I mention it in every single thread I post in, I wanna plug this (http://libcom.org/library/caliban-witch-silvia-federici) as an important and accessible situating of capital historically, while grappling with the gendered and colonial aspects of its constitution.

In light of a correct reading of the first post, I'd like to recommend Bolo'bolo (printable .pdf available here (http://zinelibrary.info/bolobolo), or $12 from Autonomedia (http://bookstore.autonomedia.org/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&cPath=71&products_id=669)) and Ursala K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed (full book online here (http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ursula-k-le-guin-the-dispossessed)). Both are essentially works of utopian fiction, which, as far as I'm concerned, is a much better suited medium. Writing up blueprints from our current vantage point is, in my opinion, akin to trying to build a ship without having ever seen the ocean.

[Tim Cornelis]

I think he's asking for economics in a post-capitalist society:

a decent book as an introduction to economic theory in a post-capital society

Just a guess.

Workers' Councils and the Economics of a Self-Managed Society
Pat Devine's works
Parecon (yuck)
Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution
Towards a New Socialism
Towards An Inclusive Democracy: The Crisis of the Growth Economy and the Need For a New Liberatory Project
An Anarchist FAQ (section I)
After the Revolution: Economic Reconstruction in Spain
In Defence of Socialist Planning
Socialism as a Practical Alternative (SPGB)
The Economics of Freedom by Solidarity Federation
Guild Socialism: A Plan for Economic Democracy (1921) by GDH Cole
National Guilds: An Inquiry Into the Wage System and a Way Out

[redblackandgay]

I think he's asking for economics in a post-capitalist society:

a decent book as an introduction to economic theory in a post-capital society

Just a guess.

Workers' Councils and the Economics of a Self-Managed Society
Pat Devine's works
Parecon (yuck)
Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution
Towards a New Socialism
Towards An Inclusive Democracy: The Crisis of the Growth Economy and the Need For a New Liberatory Project
An Anarchist FAQ (section I)
After the Revolution: Economic Reconstruction in Spain
In Defence of Socialist Planning
Socialism as a Practical Alternative (SPGB)
The Economics of Freedom by Solidarity Federation
Guild Socialism: A Plan for Economic Democracy (1921) by GDH Cole
National Guilds: An Inquiry Into the Wage System and a Way Out

Will definitley check some of these out, as well as some marx (the communist manifesto is already on hold at teh library) Maybe even some lenin/stalin for good measure though I am FIRMLY anti-state and authority

[RO17]

Not to hijack the thread, but I am wondering the same too, what are good introductory books and more advance books for a post capitalistic economy (capitalism is bound to fall on it's own contradictions, as it is now, the only reason it is alive is because every several years the governments bail out all the businesses). I know a little about classical and Keynesian economics, but I am just interested in a marxist economy (if that makes sense)

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

Will definitley check some of these out, as well as some marx (the communist manifesto is already on hold at teh library) Maybe even some lenin/stalin for good measure though I am FIRMLY anti-state and authority

i believe a good chunk of old SPGB stuff is freely avaliable online so that should be fairly easy to get hold of whether or not you entirely agree with them

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

Please note - I've corrected my earlier post to reflect what you were actually looking for.

[redblackandgay]

Just checked my old flash drive and I have PDFs of Marx's Capital as well as the first several sections of An Anarchist FAQ that I never got very far into.. Will work on getting the rest as soon as I'm done with my current reading (Gahhhh too many books 0.0)

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

The problem with any book that purports to be an economic theory of a post-capitalist society is that, the idea is that in a post-capitalist society there will be no 'economy' or 'economics'. Goods, distribution, production - these will be things organised by society, not through economic theory, latin numerals and so on, but something more organic than the rigid orthodoxy promoted by economics, and by economies as they exist.

[ed miliband]

The problem with any book that purports to be an economic theory of a post-capitalist society is that, the idea is that in a post-capitalist society there will be no 'economy' or 'economics'. Goods, distribution, production - these will be things organised by society, not through economic theory, latin numerals and so on, but something more organic than the rigid orthodoxy promoted by economics, and by economies as they exist.

yeah, and to add to this, what i like about the recent translation of michael heinrich's introduction to marx's capital is heinrich stresses marx is not an "economist", and capital is not an economic work, but a critique of political economy.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

well, political economy was the encapsulation of political and economic sciences in the 18th and 19th centuries, so in some respects Marx's work incorporates that of an economist, but yeah to narrow him down to just an economist is wrong.

I always see Marx as philosopher first, commentator on political economy second, sociologist third.

[Canada]

Read everyone, including the schools of thought you aren't inclined to agree with.

I tried to post links to a selection of 8 highly influential works you can read for free, but alas I'm not permitted to post links.

[Tim Cornelis]

Also, the Accumulation of Freedom is a book about anarchist economics.


The problem with any book that purports to be an economic theory of a post-capitalist society is that, the idea is that in a post-capitalist society there will be no 'economy' or 'economics'. Goods, distribution, production - these will be things organised by society, not through economic theory, latin numerals and so on, but something more organic than the rigid orthodoxy promoted by economics, and by economies as they exist.

There will be economics, economic theory, and economic conduct under communism, or post-capitalism. Economics is the means by which wealth is produced and consumed. Under communism we will produce and consume wealth, we will have theories using algorithms, models, and statistics to calculate production and distribution rationally, and thus we will have communist economics, a discipline that is to work itself out once the socialist mode of production has been implemented. 'Society' will use economic theories (e.g. Kantorovich' linear programming) and computer models to efficiently and effectively conduct the production and distribution of collective and consumer goods. What does 'Latin numerals' even mean? Sounds suspiciously anti-intellectual.