Intermediate course on Libertarianism and the Austrian School of Economics

Categories: Home

Last updated: 2026-06-22

---

• This course will mainly cover the various collectivist ideologies (Mercantilism, Marxism, Keynesianism and Social Democracy) and how libertarianism and the Austrian School of Economics responds to each one.
• For libertarianism, the battle of ideas is between the free market versus the various collectivisms and State interventions; left and right are part of a lie that distracts, confuses, and distorts the real problem.
• It is advisable to take the Basic Course on Libertarianism and the Austrian School of Economics first, although this course will refer to all the concepts named in the Basic course.

---

Remaining concepts of Austrian Economics

The following concepts will be needed to understand the other chapters of this course

International Trade

• Theory of comparative advantage
• Law of Association

Related to the Interest Rate

• Saving
• Theory of Capital
• Time Preference
• Interest Rate

Related to inflation

• The gold standard
• Quantity theory of money

---

State Interventions

• State Intervention
• Public Choice Theory (by James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock)
• Crony Capitalism
• The lie of the term "Neoliberalism" (Calling State Interventionism "Neoliberalism")

The origin of economic crises

• The birth of Fractional-Reserve Banking
• The origin of Central Banks
• The Austrian solution: The Free Banking System
• Fiscal Deficit

Other forms of intervention

In general, the various tactics the state uses to intervene and distort the economy are described.

• Low State Intervention
• Protectionism (Tariffs, Import Quotas, and Subsidies)
• Minimum Wage
• Price Controls
• High Taxes

Consequences of interventions

• Unsustainable Investments
• Inflation
• The problem of the business cycle and the Austrian solution

---

Mercantilism

"Mercantilism" is basically everything that leftists call "Capitalism"; there is nothing related to the "Free Market" in "Mercantilism".

• Bullionism
• Montaigne's Fallacy
• Mercantilism
• Colonialism
• Transatlantic Slavery

---

The Industrial Revolution

How humanity lived before the Industrial Revolution

• Child labor conditions before the Industrial Revolution
• Sanitary conditions before the Industrial Revolution
• Working conditions before the Industrial Revolution

Beginnings of the Industrial Revolution (1770-1835)

• Enclosure Acts
• Combination Acts

• The Sadler Committee of 1832

• Were the Combination Acts the cause of all the suffering at the start of the Industrial Revolution?

• Accelerated Urbanization

---

Marxism

• Marxism

Ideological Principles of Marxism

• Dialectical and Historical Materialism
• Alienation of the Worker
• Communism as the end of human prehistory

Political Principles of Marxism

• Class struggle
• Dictatorship of the Proletariat
• The Internationals
• Internationalism
• Labor Theory of Value
• Surplus Value (or exploitation of the worker)
• The contradictions of Capitalism

Böhm-Bawerk's critique

• Böhm-Bawerk's devastating critique of Marxism

Consequences of Marxism

• War Communism
• GOSPLAN and the Holodomor
• The Great Leap Forward

---

Keynesianism

It is necessary to have read the chapter on -> State Interventions before reading "Keynesianism".

The crisis that triggered the Keynesian idea

• The post-World War I crisis
• The Great Depression

Keynes's ideas

• Keynesianism
• Critique of Keynesianism
• Keynesianism and its relationship with Crony Capitalism

---

Social Democracy

It is necessary to have read the chapter on -> State Interventions before reading "Social Democracy".

• Social Democracy
• Social Justice and Inequality
• The redistribution of wealth

Some Consequences of the Redistribution of Wealth

• Political Clientelism
• Privileged Entrepreneurs
• Institutionalized Theft

Ideas of Thomas Piketty

• Inequality according to Piketty
• Waste in the redistribution of wealth
• How would the "non-rich" spend the redistributed money?

Basic Philosophy

Epistemology

• Epistemology
• Falsifiability

Logic

• Logic
• Concepts of informal logic
• Critical thinking
• Sophisms and Sophists

Optional

• Basic concepts of formal logic
• Concepts of classical logic

---

Categories: Home

Last updated: 2026-06-22

---

---

| | | |

---

This site was written based on publicly available free articles from the internet.
The content of this site is available under the: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.
You can freely copy, redistribute and modify the material, as long as the source is mentioned: liberwiki.com

---