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Economics ========= Economics is a field that is just as often ridiculed, over-simplified, or most often outright ignored. Despite this economic principles underline every aspect of our world, and the general lack of understanding of this principles is the cause of many of the problems that ail mankind. In issues of economic policy often (alleged) intentions are given more importance than real consequences, and the generated incentives are ignored. Here are some of the most misunderstood and harmful economic ideas: * [Subsidies](subsidies) * [Minimum wage](minimum_wage) * [Rent controls](rent_controls) * Antitrust laws Milton Friedman --------------- '*If an exchange between two parties is voluntary, it will not take place unless both believe they will benefit from it. Most economic fallacies derive from the neglect of this simple insight, from the tendency to assume that there is a fixe d pie, that one party can only gain at the expense of another.*' '*A major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it ... gives pe ople what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want . Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freed om itself.*' '*One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programmes by their intentio ns rather than their results.*'