Naked Economics By Charles Wheelan Summary

The book Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan is meant to be a unique sort of introductory guide to the study of economics. The author decided that he would attempt to convey the essential concepts of economics without relying on any graphs or equations which often tend to confuse beginner economics students. Wheelan has delivered an introductory economics text that succeeds in conveying the framework of basic economics while keeping all of his assertions within the realm of fact. Wheelan’s strategy of eliminating complicated graphs and equations from his book certainly makes it a more approachable text. This tactic also allows the reader to more easily grasp the overarching concepts within economics such as incentives, markets, and economic

His argument follows the line of thought that if teachers are not paid according to ability there will be no reason for teachers to improve their performance. He also argues that a uniform pay scale causes “the brightest individuals shun the education profession at every juncture.” While these arguments are logical and do a great job of illustrating the problem faced by our education system they fail to address the challenges that arise from the implementation of this plan, or the success rates of past experiments in merit based

The central inefficiency in this process is that “rent-seeking involves spending resources to influence a division of profits, instead of creating a good or service that other businesses or individuals are willing to pay an amount that exceeds the cost of producing said good or service.” It is also a fact that the vast majority of money spent on lobbying comes from corporations and trade groups, the exact types of groups that would be interested in “rent-seeking”. Research from 2014 has concluded that, “Corporations and trade associations comprise the vast majority of lobbying expenditures by interest groups — more than 84% at the federal level” The impressive sums being spent by corporations and trade associations coupled with the detrimental effects of this behavior on the economy reveal that Wheelan’s warnings about the dangers of organised interest groups are well