"This book constitutes a thoroughgoing philosophic analysis and defense of virtually all aspects of advertising. It traces the criticisms made of advertising to false philosophic and economic doctrines, such as determinism and the theory of pure and perfect competition. It defends advertising against such accusations as that it is coercive and monopolistic, creates artificial needs, and erects barriers to entry." - George Reisman
Reisman's ringing manifesto for laissez-faire capitalism free of all government intervention is at once a conservative polemic and a monumental treatise, brimming with original theories. that is remarkable for its depth, scope and rigorous argument. He rejects the Keynesian doctrine that government must adopt a policy of budget deficits to cope with unemployment, contending, to the contrary, that federal intervention in the economic system is a root cause of inflation, credit expansion, depression and mass unemployment. Reisman staunchly defends capitalists as risk-takers who raise the average worker's real wages and living standards, increasing productivity and improving the quantity and quality of goods. Socialism, he says, is the system that exploits labor and causes stifling monopolistic control - Publishers Weekly.
Ranks with Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson for clarity and usefulness in understanding the basic workings of a market economy.
"Henry Hazlitt, one of America's greatest economists, presents the best refutation of socialist and Keynesian beliefs. It is a tremendous pity that such a brilliant thinker is rarely considered among the greatest economists. He certainly is more rational, realistic, and correct than Marx or Keynes, and I would even go as far as to say he provides a better constructed argument for free market capitalism than either of the celebrated neo-classical economists, F.A. Hayek or Milton Friedman. Both men are brilliant thinkers and economists as well, but they have never been able to convey their ideas in such an concise manner." -- Scott Rosen, Amazon reviewer.
