Book Club Recap – Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through The Unfree World

December 2, 2024

Jamie Wagner is a Professor and Teaching Fellow with the Foundation for Teaching Economics, as well as an Associate Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Economic Education at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. In this series, Dr. Wagner will discuss best practices for teaching economic principles, as well as current events and their economic implications.

I love reading and am an avid reader – around 52 books a year. Several years ago I had an idea to start an economics book club with Nebraska teachers. The club was popular, and the teachers enjoyed it. I thought more teachers would enjoy participating, so I proposed starting a book club for FTE teachers. FTE leadership agreed and last year was a successful trial run!

This is the second year I’ve coordinated FTE’s Alumni Book Club and it’s become one of my favorite ways to connect with educators. The Book Club is also a good excuse for me to buy and read econ books. As if I needed any additional incentives – check out a small stack of my TBR (to be read) econ books!

This year I selected Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World by Robert Lawson and Benjamin Powell. It’s funny, has some salty language, and great economic examples – the optimal blend of fun and information that I like to use with teachers who need a break from serious reading.

A quick recap of the book

The two authors are renowned economists and experts in their fields. Professor Lawson is a creator of the Fraser Institute’s Freedom of the World Index and Professor Powell is the Director of the Free Market Institute, as well as a professor at Texas Tech University. The authors travel around the world to countries with socialist governments to get a perspective of what life is like under socialism. They use the availability, quality, and price of beer as an aperture see what life was like under socialism. To no one’s surprise, in more economically free countries, there’s an abundance of beer, while in economically unfree countries there may be only one brand – or as in the case with Venezuela, no beer, because the central planners miscalculated!

The book provides an excellent definition of capitalism and socialism and how they’re both related to economic freedom. Capitalism is an economic system that protects economic freedom. The Fraser Institute explains that, “the cornerstones of economic freedom are (1) personal choice, (2) voluntary exchange coordinated by markets, (3) freedom to enter and compete in markets, and (4) protection of persons and their property from aggression by others.”^[1] The authors travel to Sweden and make it abundantly clear that Sweden is NOT a socialist country – it’s a capitalist economy with a heavy welfare state (i.e. high taxes to pay for government programs).

The book club

Book club participants bought the book on their own, then completed two asynchronous (but interactive) Nearpod assignments. The Nearpod assignments allowed teachers to get resources, lessons, and have discussions with other teachers. Finally, the book club concluded with a Q&A session with Professor Powell. Teachers who participated in all aspects of the book club received a $100 Amazon gift card (because incentives matter)!

Use this book in your classroom

The book itself mentions drinking beer often and there is some language which is unsuitable for the high school classroom. Teachers probably will not be able to persuade their school to buy classroom copies, but there are still resources and lessons to pull from the book. Here are a few examples to help you talk about economic freedom in a fun and engaging way.

• {Lessons} Getting the basics of language in your classroom
  • Lesson 1, Part 1: Defining Terms – Poverty and Capitalism
  • Lesson 1 – Defining Terms: Poverty and Capitalism, Part 2
• {podcast} Indicator From Planet Money: The Measure of a Tragedy (9 min)
• {podcast} Planet Money Summer School History 6: China, Taiwan and how nations grow rich (36 min)
• {Lesson/activity} St. Louis Fed Lesson: Trade-offs with Broad Social Goals Lesson for Grades 9-12
• {Website} Women and Progress–website with data on various health, economic, and social outcomes for women in countries with varying economic freedom
• {Activity} Ultimatum Game–a favorite activity of mine to show how the level of markets in a society (one measure of economic freedom) leads to more equitable splits of a prize.

And so many more!

This sounds amazing, right?! We hope to offer another FTE Alumni Book Club session soon, but in the meantime, check out the other FTE teacher opportunities that are equally amazing.

^[1] https://www.fraserinstitute.org/economic-freedom/economic-freedom-basics