Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?
For years, people have approached the Mises Institute about publishing a book on economics for kids. But why reinvent the wheel?
Richard Maybury's wonderful little book, Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?, is a fast, fascinating, and easy-to-understand introduction to economic topics like inflation, prices, trade, and business. It comes with a helpful study guide that is just right for a classroom setting.
The author put this book together under the influence of Murray Rothbard and Henry Hazlitt. He sought to make their insights understandable to junior high kids. The book is now in its fifth edition, and the author has responded well to many comments from teachers and parents along the way.
If you have read Rothbard's What Has Government Done to Our Money? or any of the larger treatises in the Austrian library, this book is not for you. However, if you know a young person who needs a kick start to economic thinking, or if you want to set someone straight who carries around crazy illusions about fundamentals, this book can do a world of good.
It's true that economic theory is a subject for adults — you don't want to assign Human Action to an 11-year old — but kids can be taught plenty too. They don't need details about epistemology or exchange rates. But by enticing them into the subject matter of money and how it gains and loses value, you plant important seeds for future study.
That is precisely what Maybury's book does. He has a knack for clean expression and simple word choices. He helps people think through what causes prices to rise, the trials that businesses face, the motive force behind entrepreneurship, where wealth comes from, what prosperity and poverty mean, and what kinds of intervention harm business.
He also covers some of the most exciting if financially devastating periods of economic history from the the German hyperinflation of the 1920s to the Great Depression to the 1970s inflation in the United States.
The study guide, by Jane Williams, is also an essential tool for students. We made it part of the package since this book is best used in a home school or private school setting.
Comments (10)
Jim Fedako
An excellent book! My wife bought the book to home school our children in economics - many homeschoolers recommend the book. I ended up reading it and discovering Austrian Economics for the first time, though I had a concentration in economics in college. After reading the book, I searched the internet for "Austrian School of Economics" and found Mises.org.
Buy it for your children or buy an extra copy to give to your local library or friends.
Published: June 21, 2006 9:02 AM
A.B. Dada
Some of my regular anarcho-capitalist readers and contributers have talked about the book for months at our forums. I was shocked that I had never heard of it and have already bought a few copies for friends who homeschool. Most of them are also shocked that economics is so simple to learn.
Published: June 21, 2006 2:36 PM
Christopher
Thanks for the heads-up on this, I'll check it out.
Published: June 21, 2006 8:50 PM
olin
you think this will affect Microsoft
Bill Gates to Relinquish Duties at Microsoft in 2008
Published: June 21, 2006 10:32 PM
Bryan Morton
"Whatever Happened to Penny Candy" is a great book as are Maybury's others. Another good primer on the differences between voluntary Vs. coerced action is "The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible."
Published: June 22, 2006 1:41 PM
Tony Pivetta
My earliest whiff of economic theory came in eighth grade, when I learned that an unfettered market economy brought on the Great Depression. Not until my adult years would I gain the Austrian corrective. Books like *Whatever Happened to Penny Candy* can advance the cause of clear economic thinking for future generations.
Published: June 22, 2006 4:34 PM
Paul
I haven't read this book, but we used 'Economics in One Lesson' by Henry Hazlitt and 'The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey' by Ken Schoolland when we home schooled. I'm going to order 'Whatever Happened to Penny Candy'.
Published: June 22, 2006 6:45 PM
olmedo
have you read the "school library journal" comments on this book that appear en the amazon web site (no wonder why schools are what they are:
"....But the book lacks thoughtful analysis. Reminiscent of many letters to the editor, Maybury's style of economic reasoning is simplistic and biased against government. The reason big corporations can't buy better tools, he asserts, is that they must "pay so many taxes that they don't have enough money left over." In another passage, government is blamed for "taking money from others." (Civic responsibility and government services are not a part of the author's vocabulary.) He does nothing to promote global understanding by his references to the reliability of money in Chile, Mexico, and Argentina: "I would not like to live there." A caution against blaming others for inflation and recession is followed by an explanation of the role of Jews in Europe before World War I: "Compared to everyone else they were wealthy." ...
Published: June 23, 2006 12:16 AM
Jon
This book is what eventually lead me to Mises.org. My mom bought it for me in high school because I wanted to learn economics. I then read "One Lesson" because it was recommended by Maybury in the appendix. That was where I stopped. I didn't know there were different schools of thought in economics until college. Luckily at USC, the "economics for engineers" professor taught largely Austrian economics and had us take the "Are you an Austrian" quiz on this website. I dug up Maybury's book and found out that he was an Austrian and recommends anything written by Ludwig von Mises. Maybury's other books are unbelievably good. Highly recommended.
Published: June 23, 2006 10:23 AM
David K.Meller
How many villains in history have said "give me a child in the first seven years and he is mine for life". Why should THEY have the last word?
An introduction to the new generation to the ideas and the benefits of liberty, sound economics, and the value of private property for a change is both wise and welcome!
Maybe Mayberry, and writers like him, will start a trend in writing and the marketing of children's books...inoculating young people (and their parents) against the virus of statism in the wretched mass-indoctrination compounds called "public schools"!
Keep up the good work!
PEACE AND FREEDOM!!
David K. Meller
Published: July 2, 2006 10:35 AM