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In the main body text, there are numbered links to relevant endnotes and references. Below is a list of these, which you may want to consider for further reading, notes and extra Vichaars that didn’t make it into the main body.
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Notes & References
1
This concept became known as the “division of labour” of which Adam Smith detailed in his work. The following link is an interactive demonstration of one of the analogies given in Smith’s Wealth Of Nations about a pin factory:
Link: Adam Smith's Enlightened World (adamsmithworks.org)
Raw: https://www.adamsmithworks.org/pin_factory.html
2
Unfortunately now, a gold standard is no longer used. President Nixon took the world off of this gold standard in 1971, and onto a dollar-based one backed by nothing but trust in the US government.
Link: A Brief History of the Gold Standard, with a Focus on the United States | Mises Wire
Raw: https://mises.org/wire/brief-history-gold-standard-focus-united-states
Link: WTF Happened In 1971?
Raw: https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/
Raw: https://oll.libertyfund.org/quote/mises-on-the-gold-standard-as-the-symbol-of-international-peace-and-prosperity-1949
Whilst a gold standard was important to help prevent inflationary money printing by governments (and is perhaps much better than what we have now), it still was set by the state as legal tender. Azadism would do away with any state-backed or mandated currency (including gold) and let the people themselves establish their own money through market interactions. If people want to pay in gold that’s great, as well any other kind of money such as cryptocurrencies. By separating money and government, the power of manipulating the money supply is removed. A future publication may expand in more detail the monetary environment of an Azadist state; for this manifesto, it will become too technical. However, it must be stated that alongside the removal of legal-tender laws, Azadism is strictly opposed to any form of central banking. No central bank should have power over the money supply, setting unified interest rates for the nation or acting as a state-backed lender of last resort in an Azadist system.
3
Link: Chapter VI | Adam Smith Works
Raw: https://www.adamsmithworks.org/documents/chapter-vi-of-the-component-parts-of-the-price-of-commodities
4
Another example may be non-profits, however, even here, owners and workers are still usually paid a salary. Profit is still generated, but it is reinvested into the organisation or goes to the cause that they were set up for instead.
5
This was known as the ‘Labour Theory of Value’ and was held by many classical economists, including David Ricardo and Karl Marx. This has now been largely debunked and replaced by the Subjective Theory of Value and the Marginal Utility Theory.
Link: Three Arguments Debunking Marx’s Labor Theory of Value | Mises Wire
Raw: https://mises.org/wire/three-arguments-debunking-marxs-labor-theory-value
6
Carl Menger was the founder of the Austrian School of Economics. After recognising discrepancies between the ideas of classical economists and his experience with the real world, it led him to critically re-evaluate the entire field of economics. In 1871 he released his work ‘Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre’ - Principles of Economics. This diamond example was from the third chapter, accessed here:
Link: Menger's Principles of Economics: Burying the Labor Theory of Value | Libertarianism.org
Raw: https://www.libertarianism.org/essays/mengers-principles-economics-burying-labor-theory-value
7
This is a common example used to explain the Subjective Theory of Value. Each person values goods differently depending on their own personal preferences.
8
This is covered by the Marginal Utility Theory, which states that after a point, each additional unit of a good that is consumed would provide gradually less satisfaction or utility than the previous unit.
Link: Marginal utility | economics | Britannica
Raw: https://www.britannica.com/topic/marginal-utility
9
Link: The Value of Diamonds and Water Paradox (investopedia.com)
Raw: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/032615/how-can-marginal-utility-explain-diamondwater-paradox.asp
Link: Value and Prices - (Austrian Econ Basics #2) - YouTube
Raw:
10
Examples of these are markets for human beings, such as slavery and human trafficking. Since these both violate the NAP, they are not compatible with the idea of Free Markets as interpreted by Azadism. The parties involved here have not all consented and so transactions of this nature should be resisted to maintain freedom.
Alternatively, markets for drugs do not break the NAP, since both buyer and seller have consented to this transaction. No freedom has been eroded in this case. This may seem immoral initially to allow drug trades to be legal, however, this may be expanded in a later post to dispel some of the misunderstanding around legalisation and decriminalisation of drugs.
11
Link: Price Controls - Econlib
Raw: https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PriceControls.html
12
Link: Friedrich Hayek (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
Raw: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/friedrich-hayek/
Hayek was perhaps one of the greatest minds in the last century regarding economics. When he moved to London in 1931 he provided strong resistance against the ideas of John Meynard Keynes. However, unfortunately, Keynes succeeded in the public sphere, with many of the modern western so-called “capitalist” economies adopting varying degrees of Keynesian policies as a result. For more information about this debate, see here:
The clash between Keynes and Hayek defined modern economics | British Politics and Policy at LSE
Keynes vs. Hayek: The Great Debate Continues – AIER
13
Link: History of the OED | Oxford English Dictionary
Raw: https://public.oed.com/history/
Link: How the Oxford English Dictionary started out like Wikipedia | WIRED UK
Raw: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/the-oxford-english-wiktionary
Other Useful Resources:
Please take some time to understand Supply and Demand, as it is a crucial element of economics.
Link: Law of Supply and Demand Definition (investopedia.com)
Raw: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/law-of-supply-demand.asp
Link: Explaining supply and demand - Economics Help
Raw: https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/160660/economics/explaining-supply-and-demand-2/
Link: Simulating Supply and Demand - YouTube
Raw:
Understanding of the pricing mechanism and markets forms the basis of economic thinking. This is only a brief summary of these concepts, and in order to avoid this paper becoming an economics textbook, it is recommended that the curious look into this further for a deeper understanding. I have included only as much as required for the purposes of this manifesto and as an introduction to arguably the most important concepts in economics and human behaviour as a whole. Some of the concepts mentioned in this section included: supply and demand, opportunity costs, subjective theory of value and marginal utility theory.
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