Sin No More.

• Author: Carden, Art
• Position: Seven Deadly Economic Sins: Obstacles to Prosperity and Happiness Every Citizen Should Know

Seven Deadly Economic Sins: Obstacles to Prosperity and Happiness Every Citizen Should Know

By James R. Otteson

322 pp.; Cambridge University Press, 2021

After reading the philosopher James R. Otteson's Seven Deadly Economic Sms, I find myself agreeing with the subtitle (these are "Obstacles to Prosperity and Happiness Every Citizen Should Know") and the back cover blurb from Deirdre McCloskey: "most economists should read it, too" so that we can "get back to an Adam-Smithian depth of understanding."

I've reviewed two of Otteson's books before: The End of Socialism (Spring 2016) and Honorable Business (Fall 2019). Both are stellar and well worth reading. The same is true of Seven Deadly Economic Sins, which would be a fine addition to an economics or philosophy course syllabus or a useful standalone text for a reading group or book club. I've practically ruined my copy with marginal notes, and I suspect I'm not the only reader to do so.

Seven Deadly Economic Sins is written at a level accessible to students, educated laypeople, and non-economists/philosophers interested in seeing what Smith's intellectual descendants have to say about the world. Otteson, a leading Smith scholar, is an ideal guide.

Seven fallacies / Where many economists try to distance themselves from ethical assumptions and try to describe "policy implications" neutrally, Otteson (a trained philosopher) evaluates the "seven deadly economic sins" in light of his conviction that responsible adults are "equal moral agents" who deserve the liberty and dignity to make their own choices. We don't honor their moral equality when we presume to make economic choices for them, and as Otteson shows, that presumption is at the root of many "obstacles to prosperity and happiness."

He takes readers through seven fallacies: the Wealth Is Zero-Sum Fallacy, the Good Is Good Enough Fallacy, the Great Mind Fallacy, the Progress Is Inevitable Fallacy, the Economics Is Amoral Fallacy, the We Should Be Equal Fallacy, and the Markets Are Perfect Fallacy. He finishes with a bonus eighth fallacy in his conclusion, which he calls the I Am the World Fallacy. These, he argues, corrupt our souls and destroy our world.

The first of these, the Wealth Is Zero-Sum Fallacy, is probably the most important, the most misunderstood, and the most understandable in light of where we've been as a species. It's most understandable because, for almost all of history, wealth was zero-sum. Rulers and nobles amassed...