In ‘No Free Lunch,’ Fuller debunks common economic lies

Dr. Caleb Fuller ’13 , assistant professor of Economics at Grove City College, said he wrote his new book by accident but the points he makes in it are intentional.

“No Free Lunch: Six Economic Lies You’ve Been Taught and Probably Believe” was written to clear up some common economic misconceptions and acquaint readers with an understanding of why economics is important in everyday life.

“It’s important for ‘regular’ people to learn economics because economics is about regular people! Economics is about flesh-and-blood human beings pursuing their hopes, desires and dreams. It’s also about what hampers and hinders them in that pursuit,” Fuller said. “When societies get the economics wrong, widespread deprivation and destitution follow. I hope the basic principles I discuss in my book will inspire conversations about the institutions which underpin free and prosperous societies.”

The book stems from Grove City College’s video series “The Life of the Mind: Great Lectures from the Grove,” which featured Fuller’s “Everyday Economic Errors” course. “I had written a script for the series. When I asked a friend to review my script, he suggested I’d written a book,” Fuller said.

Freiling Publishing agreed, and “No Free Lunch” will be released this month. Eminent George Mason University economist – and Grove City College alumnus – Peter Boettke ’83 wrote the foreward. He said the book is “a welcome addition to the literature striving to eradicate one of the greatest social ills humanity faces – basic economic illiteracy."

Fuller offers his book as an update to Henry Hazlitt’s classic “Economics in One Lesson.” That book was impactful for generations of students, scholars and policymakers, Fuller said, but features examples that “feel archaic to the modern reader”.

“I want to communicate the basic message of economics and what it tells us about human flourishing to a new generation,” he said. “I want there to be recognition of the fact that, as Thomas Sowell says, ‘there are no solutions to human problems—only tradeoffs.’ Beyond that, I want readers to stop falling for bumper-sticker analyses of the vastly rich and complex social world that human beings inhabit.”

“No Free Lunch: Six Economic Lies You’ve Been Taught and Probably Believe” will soon be available at Amazon and other online booksellers.

Fuller’s “Everyday Economic Errors” series is available at gcc.edu/youtube.

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