Henry Hazlitt

From Philosopedia

Hazlitt, Henry (28 November 1894 - 8 July 1993)

Hazlitt was an economist whom H. L. Mencken in 1933 asked to succeed him as editor of the American Mercury, an iconoclastic journal founded by Mencken and George Nathan.

From 1934 to 1956 Hazlitt wrote about economics for The New York Times, later writing for Newsweek.

In 1949 he was asked his views about humanism:

I don’t know exactly where I would fit into the categories unless I knew very clearly the criteria on which they were based. My guess is that my views would fall somewhere between classical humanism and naturalistic humanism. What I can say definitely is that they would not fall into the categories of theistic or atheistic humanism. If you must stick me in somewhere for the sake of schematic neatness, I suggest that I would probably fit with the least discomfort into the category of naturalistic humanism.

Hazlitt wrote Anatomy of Criticism (1933) and Economics in One Lesson (1946, 1988). He did not believe wage levels could be raised by union bargaining or legislating minimum wage laws. He also rejected Karl Marx’s and John Maynard Keynes’s interventionist strategies, emphasizing his basic and consistent belief in the free market system.

{[WAS]], 28 March 1949, 13 February 1951}