0. Preface to Reisman's Lectures on Capitalism

Download course and supplemental materials here. Order the book CAPITALISM (On sale for $9.99 on Kindle for approx. 1000 pages).  Visit Dr. Reisman's website capitalism.net OBJECTIVES 1. To provide the student with a comprehensive knowledge of the nature, foundations, and operations of a division-of labor, capitalist society, with special emphasis on the institutions of private ownership of the means of production, competition, the profit motive, and the price system as the basis for economic coordination and economic progress. The consequences of government intervention with respect to these institutions will be considered in depth. 2. To teach the student to think of economic phenomena in terms of their long-run effects on all groups, not merely their short-run effects on those directly concerned. OVERVIEW The course will focus on five main current problem areas: 1) The validation of economic activity and fundamental economic institutions in the face of widespread criticisms. 2) Environmentalism and energy supplies. 3) Economic “planning” and the reasons for the worldwide collapse of socialism. 4) The monopoly question and antitrust policy. 5) Prevailing ideas on the nature of productive activity and the effect of government intervention on the standard of living of the average wage earner. Two leading themes of the course will be 1) The possibility of continuous economic progress based on the combination of economic freedom, private ownership of the means of production, division of labor, saving, and technological progress. 2) The ethical implication of the harmony of the rational self-interests of all men under capitalism.