By Bob Luddy
The following article is based on my recent lecture at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, entitled: “Henry Hazlitt’s Long-Term Economic Thinking: Foundation of Entrepreneurial Excellence.” Here I will explore morality as Hazlitt’s foundational theme in economics.
Henry Hazlitt is considered to be one of the best financial journalists of the 20th century.“He was a giant in financial journalism,” as Jim Grant pointed out in his 2014 Mises Institute lecture entitled “Hazlitt, My Hero.”
Aside from his journalism, Hazlitt was a prolific writer who summed-up economics in “one lesson” in 1946.
Economics in One Lesson was based, in part, on Frederic Bastiat’s essay, What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen, and delves into the importance of aspects of the economy that are never spoken about, because they never happen. Hazlitt goes one step further, summing up economics not simply as a series of transactions with hidden implications, but in terms of long-term effects outliving the short-term effects of every economic principle or policy.
Hazlitt wrote more than twenty books and was the principal editorial writer on finance and economics for the New York Times for twelve years and was a columnist for Newsweek for twenty years. His writing was thoughtful, incisive, and influential. And he played a significant role in supporting, introducing, and explaining the ideas of Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek.
Though incisive, Hazlitt’s opinions were still subject to criticism. He opposed many popular government initiatives in his day: The New Deal, the Bretton Woods Agreement, and the Marshall Plan. This opposition led to his departure from the New York Times and contributed towards ending his twenty-year-long collaboration with Newsweek.
Henry Hazlitt enabled readers not only to think clearly but correctly. As Hazlitt’s departure from thatNew York Times indicates, organizations and government demand compliance with existing ideas and punish critical thinkers. Hazlitt’s economic thinking was revolutionary, but his thoughts on morality were paramount.
In his book, The Foundations of Morality, Hazlitt defines morality as “not the subordination of the ‘individual’ to ‘society,’ but the subordination of immediate objectives to long-term ones.” As in his understanding of economics, he realized that the long-term interests of the individual would serve the long-term interests of society.
These long-term interests of the individual depend on social cooperation. As he points out: “Social cooperation is the foremost means by which the majority of us attain most of our ends.” (The Foundations of Morality, p. 13.)
These important principles are often lost on our society today. The challenge for entrepreneurs and leaders is to focus on the long term, in spite of tremendous pressure to think only about the short term.
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