# Jesus - The Unknown Economist Author: [[Charles Gave]] ## Review I am a big fan of Charles Gave, knowing him only through his investment research and the odd interview I could find of him online. This book is a follow up to another book he wrote in which he argues that western ideology is held up by Greek logical reasoning and Christian morality. In the first book he focuses on the first pillar of reason, and in this one he focuses on christian morality. I haven't read the first book. Charles Gave's key argument is that Christ was a capitalist, and strongly opposed to socialist ideology. He uses Christ's own words from the gospel to back up his assertions. Christian values encompassed Jewish values but is distinct from them in that it adds individual freedom and love/respect for others. The addition of these two values is important because they are key to the capitalist perspective. He builds this argument over a few short chapters by interpreting Jesus' words to focus on the importance of: - the value of entrepreneurs - market determined value - respect for property rights - honoring your word and respect for agreements and contracts Gave was not only making a point about Christ being a capitalist (and a libertarian) but also describing the failings of the French state. He is concerned with the direction France is taking since it is violating all the most important aspects of capitalism. To be clear he is not pro-church, which has had its share of totalitarian regimes especially during the dark ages. He strongly opposes any institution which tries to subvert individual freedom and respect for others. It just so happens that the Catholic church has now been replaced by what he calls "the church of laicity". He uses that term to refer to secularism which enforces a certain way to think about the world. I agree with Charles Gave on the importance of these issues and their origin in Christianity. The tie in with the gospels was also very interesting. What bothers me is that I felt he wasn't being intellectual honest at times. For example, he claims that socialists don't care about entrepreneurs and therefore they are wrong. Now, that may have been the case when he wrote the book but not so much anymore. In my opinion he is setting up a straw man. I think everybody now agrees that entrepreneurs are important the issue is that they don't the distribution of outcomes behind risk-taking and how it can be encouraged or discouraged. There were a few instances like this that made me felt he was taking the easy way out of the discussion. Although I agree with many (most?) of his conclusions it really bothers me when people take the easy way out of these discussions because I really want to understand and discover the truth, or at least the best way to think about this issues. ## Key Ideas ## Related