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| Quotations - General | [Quote No.35917] Need Area: Friends > General
"People can today seek salvation only in democracy, in the right of self-determination both of individuals and of nations." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.35918] Need Area: Friends > General
"[Foreign development and raising the living standards of all the peoples of the world:] The prerequisite for more economic equality in the world is industrialization. And this is possible only through increased capital investment, increased capital accumulation... The poverty of...[some] nations is due to the fact that their policies of expropriation, discriminatory taxation and foreign exchange control prevent the investment of foreign capital while their domestic policies preclude the accumulation of indigenous capital... It is not a lack of the know how that prevents foreign countries from fully adopting...[advanced] methods of manufacturing, but the insufficiency of capital available... Capitalists have the tendency to move towards those countries in which there is plenty of labor available and in which [the cost of] labor is reasonable. And by the fact that they bring capital into these countries, they bring about a trend toward higher wage rates [and a better standard of living and thereby more power and freedom for the people. In time that can lead to a free market where the consumer is sovereign in the economy and the citizens' votes are sovereign in politics rather than other forces]." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.35919] Need Area: Friends > General
"Most of the tyrants, despots, and dictators are sincerely convinced that their rule is beneficial for the people, that theirs is government for the people... Every dictator [whether an individual or a group] plans to rear, raise, feed, and train his fellow men as the breeder does his cattle. His aim is not to make the people happy but to bring them into a condition which renders him, the dictator, happy. He wants to domesticate them, to give them cattle status. The cattle breeder also is a benevolent despot." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.35922] Need Area: Friends > General
"As soon as we surrender the principle that the state [government or powers that be] should not interfere in any questions touching on the individual's mode of life, we [can] end by [creating an unnecessarily petty, intolerant and suffocating society where we are] regulating and restricting the latter down to the smallest details. [Therefore it is a slippery slope, requiring careful consideration about how much freedom and choice can be curtailed by majority consent as part of the social contract before the equal inalienable rights of each individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and private property are unfairly restricted.]" - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.35924] Need Area: Friends > General
"[Foreign development:] The problem of rendering the underdeveloped nations more prosperous [and their citizens with a sustainably rising standard of living] cannot be solved by material aid [alone]. It is a spiritual and intellectual problem. Prosperity is not simply a matter of capital investment. It is an ideological [and therefore a political] issue. What the underdeveloped countries need first [or at the very least, concomitantly] is the ideology of economic freedom and private enterprise [which encourages both foreign and domestic capital investment and then allows those seeds to flourish and spread]." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.35930] Need Area: Friends > General
"The horrors of revolution and civil war can be avoided if a disliked government can be smoothly dislodged at the next election [in that structured process of self-determination we call democracy, where the next period of control and power is determined by the struggle over ideas and the majority at the ballot, rather than the force of the bullet]." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.35935] Need Area: Friends > General
"Men are unequal; individuals differ from one another. They differ because their prenatal as well as their postnatal history is never identical... In talking about equality and asking vehemently for its realization, nobody advocates a curtailment of his own present income... What those people who ask for equality have in mind is always an increase in their own power to consume. [Perhaps the only realistic equality that is achievable here on earth is each individual's equal inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and private property.]" - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.35939] Need Area: Friends > General
"Has democracy failed us or have we failed it?
'Who kept the faith and fought the fight;
The glory theirs, the duty ours.'
I would like to make this quote from Wallace Bruce the theme of today's newsletter on Memorial Day, May 30th. We often take for granted the institutions that our ancestors sacrificed so much to secure. Have we fulfilled our duty to preserve the freedoms that they sacrificed so much for? And have we held the members of our institutions to account for the neglect of their duties?
'Some legislators only wish vengeance against a particular enemy. Others only look out for themselves. They devote very little time to consideration of any public issue. They think that no harm will come from their neglect. They act as if it is always the business of somebody else to look after this or that. When this selfish notion is entertained by all, the commonwealth slowly begins to decay.'
Little seems to have changed since Thucydides made this observation in about 400 BC, a century after the foundation of democracy in ancient Athens. The fundamental weakness of democracy seems to be that those who are elected to office tend to place their own interests ahead of the interests of their electorate — and ahead of the interests of the nation. Not surprising when, as Thucydides pointed out, they believe that little harm will come from their neglect. But if enough legislators place their own interests ahead of those of the country, they will cause irreversible damage.
- The First Rule of Politics is to Get Re-Elected:-
By placing their own interests first, I do not necessarily mean that office holders seek to enrich themselves at the expense of the taxpayer — although that does occasionally happen. Rather that they define their primary duty to their country as re-election. The pressure to get re-elected is bound to influence their thoughts and actions on almost every issue.
- The Presidential Cycle:-
The temptation to manipulate the system to maximize your chance of re-election is too great for most politicians to resist. In fact it has become so ingrained that the whole economy, and the stock market particularly, is subject to the political cycle. Jeremy Grantham explains the presidential cycle in his last quarterly newsletter:
'In the first seven months of the third year (of the 4yr US presidential cycle) since 1960, Year 3 has returned 2.5% per month for a total of 20% real (after inflation adjustment).... Now, 20% is perilously close to the total for the whole 48-month cycle of 21%. This means, of course, that the remaining 41 months collectively return a princely 1%.
- The Third Rule:-
The third rule of politics is don't run for re-election during a recession [as voters usually throw out the incumbent in a show of disgust and as a desire to try a change as it can't be any worse they think. This is why all presidents try to arrange things so that the share market and the economy goes well in the 3rd year of their term as they run into their next election. Presidents are limited to two consecutive terms in office in the USA system]. Ask George H. W. Bush who, despite successful prosecution of the first Iraq war, was beaten by Bill Clinton in 1992 with the slogan 'It's the economy, stupid.'
Successive presidents/governments have failed to find a way to re-schedule elections to a time that bests suits them (despite many examples in the rest of the world) [if their economies and share markets were not doing too well]. They soon, however, came up with an ingenious alternative: re-schedule the recession.
-How to Re-Schedule a Recession:-
As soon as politicians realized they could spend future taxes as well as current taxes, the demise of the current [political] system became inevitable. Prior to the Great Depression of the 1930s, governments were assessed on their ability to balance the books. Previous disasters with fiat currencies (continental and confederate dollars) were still fresh in the national consciousness. Only during times of war could they justify running a deficit. So much so that Herbert Hoover refused to run a deficit despite the deflationary spiral following the 1929 Wall Street crash.
When FDR lifted that constraint in the 1930s, with the acquiescence of a desperate public who were willing to try almost anything, an immense new power was born. Unfortunately with immense power comes immense responsibility — and successive governments have proved themselves unequal to the task. [As Lord Acton said, 'Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.']
-Spend Future Taxes and Leave your Successor a Pile of Debt:-
It has become too easy for whoever is in power to spend future taxes to stimulate the economy and postpone a recession. The result is that their successor inherits a pile of debt, which if they attempt to repay, is likely to lead to a recession. So the game becomes one of pass the parcel, with each elected government adding to the debt and passing it on to the next.
If the ancient Greeks had the same power, the decline of Athens may have been a lot sooner. Their modern counterparts have demonstrated that the game cannot continue indefinitely. At some point the market will begin to question government's ability to repay [their bonds they borrowed to spend the budget into deficit in an effort to buy favour with their electorate], raising interest rates to compensate for the risk of sovereign default. Their fears become a self-fulfilling prophecy, with higher servicing costs [interest rates for all] increasing the burden on the already-precarious fiscal budget.
-Fed Compliance:-
The second actor in this modern form of Greek tragedy is the Federal Reserve. Without a compliant Fed, government efforts to kick the can [of debt and deficit problems] down the road would be largely negated. An independent Fed could put the brakes on government efforts to stimulate the economy with borrowed money, merely by acting as a counter-balance to their actions. Unfortunately the Board of Governors are political appointments, nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) may be more evenly balanced with the addition of the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and four of the remaining eleven Reserve Bank presidents, who serve one-year terms on a rotating basis, but is still dominated by the seven Board members. You can be sure that very few mavericks are appointed as governors and that most dissenting votes come from the regions.
-Washington, Inc.:-
Elections are an expensive business and no candidate is likely to achieve re-election without financial backers, making them especially vulnerable to outside influence. The finance industry alone made $63 million in campaign contributions to Federal Candidates during the 2010 electoral cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That will buy you a lot of influence on the Hill, but is merely the tip of the iceberg. Interest groups spent $3.5 billion in that year [2010] on lobbying Congress and federal agencies ($473 million from the finance sector). While that money does not flow directly to candidates it acts as an enticing career path/retirement plan for both Representatives and senior staffers.
The revolving door between Capitol Hill and the big lobbying firms parachutes former elected officials and staffers into jobs as lobbyists, consultants and strategists — while infiltrating their best and brightest into positions within government; a constant exchange of power, influence and money. More than 75 percent of the 363 former senators or representatives end up employed by lobbying firms, either as lobbyists or advisors.
-Can the Present System Evolve? -
Are we likely to experience slow decay that Thucydides predicted? The present system is entrenched and likely to resist any attempts at reform. Evolution, however, does not occur in small increments. The norm is quite the opposite, with species enjoying long periods of stability followed by violent change when threatened with extinction. The current GFC [Global Financial Crisis, second only to the Great Depression in severity] presents just such an opportunity for change. The Tea Party movement [TEA = Taxed Enough Already], for example, is attempting to re-define the way that the system works, while I am sure that there are many Democrats who mistrust the motives of Washington.
If they fail to succeed, there is bound to be a next time. And probably sooner than we think.
'The state that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its laws made by cowards, and its fighting done by fools.'
~ Thucydides (c. 460 BC – c. 400 BC).
" - Colin Twiggs
Founder of incrediblecharts.com, from his newsletter, May 30th, 2011.
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| [Quote No.35941] Need Area: Friends > General
"The phrase 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' is found in the the second paragraph of the preamble of the US Declaration of Independence but not in the US Constitution. The Declaration is a statement of beliefs, but no court in the United Staes makes a legal decision based on the Declaration of Independence. On the other hand, The Constitution Of the United States of America is the supreme law of the land and as such forms the basis for US law. The Declaration of Independence was written in 1776, while the Constitution was drafted during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, some 11 years later." - www.politifact.com
This is not a direct quote but a summation of the tsatements made by authorities quoted in the article found at http://www.politifact.com/georgia/statements/2011/may/25/herman-cain/cain-mistakes-declaration-independence-language-co/
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| [Quote No.35955] Need Area: Friends > General
"Can the law — which necessarily requires the use of force — rationally be used for anything except protecting the rights of everyone? I defy anyone to extend it beyond this purpose without perverting it and, consequently, turning might against right. This is the most fatal and most illogical social perversion that can possibly be imagined. It must be admitted that the true solution — so long searched for in the area of social relationships — is contained in these simple words: Law is organized justice.
Now this must be said: When justice is organized by law — that is, by force — this excludes the idea of using law (force) to organize any human activity whatever, whether it be labor, charity, agriculture, commerce, industry, education, art, or religion. The organizing by law of any one of these would inevitably destroy the essential organization — justice [mutual informed consent; free choice]. For truly, how can we imagine force being used against the liberty of citizens without it also being used against justice, and thus acting against its proper purpose?
" - Frederic Bastiat
French lawyer and legal theorist.
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| [Quote No.35956] Need Area: Friends > General
"There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 16, 1788
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| [Quote No.35957] Need Area: Friends > General
"Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated." - Thomas Jefferson
Letter to Albert Gallatin, 1817
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| [Quote No.35958] Need Area: Friends > General
"The true theory of our Constitution is surely the wisest and best... (for) when all government... shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another, and will become as... oppressive as the [British] government from which we separated." - Thomas Jefferson
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| [Quote No.35960] Need Area: Friends > General
"If you believe in the importance of freedom in life then, while there are many thinkers you should consult to really develop your undstanding, through their writings - left for the benefit of you and posterity, here are a few to get you started: John Locke - a philosopher; Frederic Bastiat - a lawyer; Ludwig von Mises - an economist." - Seymour@imagi-natives.com
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| [Quote No.35984] Need Area: Friends > General
"[Statist, collectivist, socialist, communist, big government, welfare politicians and citizens make the mistake of believing, in their genuine desire to help other people, that the answer to physical inequality is to forceably take the property of one group away and give it to another they judge 'less fortunate'. As Henry Ford said,] If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man [or woman] can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience and ability. [So what they really need is the knowledge, experience and ability to create what they need and desire for themselves. Rather than taking the fish someone else has caught and giving it to them and feeding them for a day, the best solution is to teach them how to fish for themselves and then they can feed themselves and their loved ones for life. Also rather than disempowering them and making them more dependent on and beholding to the 'higher' powers, teaching them increases their personal power, independence and freedom as well as their sense of control, dignity and self-respect.] " - Henry Ford
[1863–1947] American Automotive Industrialist and innovator, born near Dearborn, Michigan, USA
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| [Quote No.35987] Need Area: Friends > General
"So far as Feminism seeks to adjust the legal position of woman to that of man, so far as it seeks to offer her legal and economic freedom to develop and act in accordance with her inclinations, desires, and economic circumstancesso far it is nothing more than a branch of the great liberal movement, which advocates peaceful and free evolution... It is not exclusively to the interest of woman that she should succeed in this struggle...All mankind would suffer if woman should fail to develop her ego and be unable to unite with man as equal, freeborn companions and comrades." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.35988] Need Area: Friends > General
"Foreign development:] The enormous transfer of capital from Western Europe to the rest of the world was one of the outstanding events of the age of capitalism. It has developed natural resources in the remotest areas. It has raised the standard of living of peoples who from time immemorial had not achieved any improvement in their material conditions... Capitalists have the tendency to move towards those countries in which there is plenty of labor available and at which [the price of] labor is reasonable. And by the fact that they bring capital into these countries, they bring about a trend toward higher wage rates [and a better standard of living]." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.35992] Need Area: Friends > General
"The market is a democracy in which every penny gives a right to vote... The democracy of the [free] market consists in the fact that people themselves make their choices and that no dictator has the power to force them to submit to his value judgments." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.35993] Need Area: Friends > General
"The market economy safeguards peaceful economic cooperation because it does not use force upon the economic plans of the citizens. If one masterplan is to be substituted for the plans of each citizen, endless fighting must emerge." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.35995] Need Area: Friends > General
"Liberty and freedom are the conditions of man within a [mutual agreement i.e.] contractual society." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.35996] Need Area: Friends > General
"The market economy safeguards peaceful economic cooperation [peace] because it does not use force upon the economic plans of the citizens. If one masterplan is to be substituted for the plans of each citizen, endless fighting must emerge... The market steers the capitalistic economy. It directs each individual's activities into those channels in which he best serves the wants of his fellow-men... Everybody acts on his own behalf [the social and economic philosopher, Adam Smith's 'enlightened self-interest']; but everybody's actions aim at the satisfaction of other people's needs as well as at the satisfaction of his own. Everybody in acting serves his fellow citizens... The market alone puts the whole social system of private ownership of the means of production and free enterprise in order and provides it with sense and meaning." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.35997] Need Area: Friends > General
"History is a struggle between two principles, the peaceful [free choice] principle, which advances the development of trade, and the militarist-imperialist [coercion - force] principle, which interprets human society not as a friendly division of labour but as the forcible repression of some of its members by others." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.35998] Need Area: Friends > General
"Freedom must be granted to all, even to base people, lest the few who can use it for the benefit of mankind be hindered." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.35999] Need Area: Friends > General
"The idea that political freedom can be preserved in the absence of economic freedom, and vice versa, is an illusion. Political freedom is the corollary of economic freedom... As soon as the economic freedom which the market economy grants to its members is removed, all political liberties and bills of rights become humbug [a hoax or jest]... Where there is no market economy, the best-intentioned provisions of constitutions and laws remain a dead letter." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.36000] Need Area: Friends > General
"Freedom is indivisible. As soon as one starts to restrict it, one enters upon a decline on which it is difficult to stop." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.36004] Need Area: Friends > General
"The meaning of economic freedom is this: that the individual is in a position to choose the way in which he wants to integrate himself into the totality of society... The freedom of man under capitalism is an effect of competition [because that gives him choices]." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.36005] Need Area: Friends > General
"This, then, is freedom in the external life of man that he is independent of the arbitrary power of his fellows...It did not exist under primitive conditions. It arose in the process of social development and its final completion is the work of mature Capitalism." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.36006] Need Area: Friends > General
"Many of our contemporaries [statists, socialists, communists, fascists, etc] are firmly convinced that what is needed to render all human affairs perfectly satisfactory is brutal suppression of all bad people, i.e., of those with whom they disagree." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.36009] Need Area: Friends > General
"Nothing suggests the belief that progress toward more satisfactory conditions is inevitable or a relapse into very unsatisfactory conditions impossible... Therefore nothing is more important today than to enlighten public opinion about the basic differences between genuine [classical] Liberalism, which advocates [individual freedom through] the free market economy, and the various interventionist parties [fascist, socialist, communist, etc] which are advocating government interference [and thereby less individual freedom]." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.36012] Need Area: Friends > General
"Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives." - Ronald Reagan
US President
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| [Quote No.36013] Need Area: Friends > General
"'War, Peace, and the State' ...To live liberty, to begin the hard but essential strategic struggle of changing the unsatisfactory world of today in the direction of our ideals, we must realize and demonstrate to the world that libertarian theory can be brought sharply to bear upon all of the world's crucial problems. By coming to grips with these problems, we can demonstrate that libertarianism is not just a beautiful ideal somewhere on Cloud Nine, but a tough-minded body of truths that enables us to take our stand and to cope with the whole host of issues of our day.
Let us then, by all means, use our strategic intelligence... Let us construct a libertarian theory of war and peace.
The fundamental axiom of libertarian theory is that no one may threaten or commit violence ('aggress') against another man's person or property. Violence may be employed only against the man who commits such violence; that is, only defensively against the aggressive violence of another.(Refer references 1 below) In short, no violence may be employed against a non-aggressor. Here is the fundamental rule from which can be deduced the entire corpus of libertarian theory.(Refer references 2 below)
Let us set aside the more complex problem of the State for a while and consider simply relations between 'private' individuals. Jones finds that he or his property is being invaded, aggressed against, by Smith. It is legitimate for Jones, as we have seen, to repel this invasion by defensive violence of his own. But now we come to a more knotty question: is it within the right of Jones to commit violence against innocent third parties as a corollary to his legitimate defense against Smith? To the libertarian, the answer must be clearly, no. Remember that the rule prohibiting violence against the persons or property of innocent men is absolute: it holds regardless of the subjective motives for the aggression. It is wrong and criminal to violate the property or person of another, even if one is a Robin Hood, or starving, or is doing it to save one's relatives, or is defending oneself against a third man's attack. We may understand and sympathize with the motives in many of these cases and extreme situations. We may later mitigate the guilt if the criminal comes to trial for punishment, but we cannot evade the judgment that this aggression is still a criminal act, and one which the victim has every right to repel, by violence if necessary. In short, A aggresses against B because C is threatening, or aggressing against, A. We may understand C's 'higher' culpability in this whole procedure; but we must still label this aggression as a criminal act which B has the right to repel by violence.
To be more concrete, if Jones finds that his property is being stolen by Smith, he has the right to repel him and try to catch him; but he has no right to repel him by bombing a building and murdering innocent people or to catch him by spraying machine gun fire into an innocent crowd. If he does this, he is as much (or more of) a criminal aggressor as Smith is.
The application to problems of war and peace is already becoming evident. For while war in the narrower sense is a conflict between States, in the broader sense we may define it as the outbreak of open violence between people or groups of people. If Smith and a group of his henchmen aggress against Jones and Jones and his bodyguards pursue the Smith gang to their lair, we may cheer Jones on in his endeavor; and we, and others in society interested in repelling aggression, may contribute financially or personally to Jones's cause. But Jones has no right, any more than does Smith, to aggress against anyone else in the course of his 'just war': to steal others' property in order to finance his pursuit, to conscript others into his posse by use of violence, or to kill others in the course of his struggle to capture the Smith forces. If Jones should do any of these things, he becomes a criminal as fully as Smith, and he too becomes subject to whatever sanctions are meted out against criminality. In fact, if Smith's crime was theft, and Jones should use conscription to catch him, or should kill others in the pursuit, Jones becomes more of a criminal than Smith, for such crimes against another person as enslavement and murder are surely far worse than theft. (For while theft injures the extension of another's personality, enslavement injures, and murder obliterates, that personality itself.)
Suppose that Jones, in the course of his 'just war' against the ravages of Smith, should kill a few innocent people, and suppose that he should declaim, in defense of this murder, that he was simply acting on the slogan, 'Give me liberty or give me death.' The absurdity of this 'defense' [American spelling - the English spelling is defence] should be evident at once, for the issue is not whether Jones was willing to risk death personally in his defensive struggle against Smith; the issue is whether he was willing to kill other people in pursuit of his legitimate end. For Jones was in truth acting on the completely indefensible slogan: 'Give me liberty or give them death' surely a far less noble battle cry.(Refer references 3 below)
The libertarian's basic attitude toward war must then be: it is legitimate to use violence against criminals in defense of one's rights of person and property; it is completely impermissible to violate the rights of other innocent people. War, then, is only proper when the exercise of violence is rigorously limited to the individual criminals. We may judge for ourselves how many wars or conflicts in history have met this criterion.
It has often been maintained, and especially by conservatives, that the development of the horrendous modern weapons of mass murder (nuclear weapons, rockets, germ warfare, etc.) is only a difference of degree rather than kind from the simpler weapons of an earlier era. Of course, one answer to this is that when the degree is the number of human lives, the difference is a very big one.(Refer references 4 below) But another answer that the libertarian is particularly equipped to give is that while the bow and arrow and even the rifle can be pinpointed, if the will be there, against actual criminals, modern nuclear weapons cannot. Here is a crucial difference in kind. Of course, the bow and arrow could be used for aggressive purposes, but it could also be pinpointed to use only against aggressors. Nuclear weapons, even 'conventional' aerial bombs, cannot be. These weapons are ipso facto engines of indiscriminate mass destruction. (The only exception would be the extremely rare case where a mass of people who were all criminals inhabited a vast geographical area.) We must, therefore, conclude that the use of nuclear or similar weapons, or the threat thereof, is a sin and a crime against humanity for which there can be no justification.
This is why the old cliché no longer holds that it is not the arms but the will to use them that is significant in judging matters of war and peace. For it is precisely the characteristic of modern weapons that they cannot be used selectively, cannot be used in a libertarian manner. Therefore, their very existence must be condemned, and nuclear disarmament becomes a good to be pursued for its own sake. And if we will indeed use our strategic intelligence, we will see that such disarmament is not only a good, but the highest political good that we can pursue in the modern world. For just as murder is a more heinous crime against another man than larceny, so mass murder – indeed murder so widespread as to threaten human civilization and human survival itself – is the worst crime that any man could possibly commit. And that crime is now imminent. And the forestalling of massive annihilation is far more important, in truth, than the demunicipalization of garbage disposal, as worthwhile as that may be. Or are libertarians going to wax properly indignant about price control or the income tax, and yet shrug their shoulders at or even positively advocate the ultimate crime of mass murder?
If nuclear warfare is totally illegitimate even for individuals defending themselves against criminal assault, how much more so is nuclear or even 'conventional' warfare between States!
It is time now to bring the State into our discussion. The State is a group of people who have managed to acquire a virtual monopoly of the use of violence throughout a given territorial area. In particular, it has acquired a monopoly of aggressive violence, for States generally recognize the right of individuals to use violence (though not against States, of course) in self-defense.(Refer references 5 below) The State then uses this monopoly to wield power over the inhabitants of the area and to enjoy the material fruits of that power. The State, then, is the only organization in society that regularly and openly obtains its monetary revenues by the use of aggressive violence; all other individuals and organizations (except if delegated that right by the State) can obtain wealth only by peaceful production and by voluntary exchange of their respective products. This use of violence to obtain its revenue (called 'taxation') is the keystone of State power. Upon this base the State erects a further structure of power over the individuals in its territory, regulating them, penalizing critics, subsidizing favorites, etc. The State also takes care to arrogate to itself the compulsory monopoly of various critical services needed by society, thus keeping the people in dependence upon the State for key services, keeping control of the vital command posts in society and also fostering among the public the myth that only the State can supply these goods and services. Thus the State is careful to monopolize police and judicial service, the ownership of roads and streets, the supply of money, and the postal service, and effectively to monopolize or control education, public utilities, transportation, and radio and television.
Now, since the State arrogates to itself the monopoly of violence over a territorial area, so long as its depredations and extortions go unresisted, there is said to be 'peace' in the area, since the only violence is one-way, directed by the State downward against the people. Open conflict within the area only breaks out in the case of 'revolutions' in which people resist the use of State power against them. Both the quiet case of the State unresisted and the case of open revolution may be termed 'vertical violence': violence of the State against its public or vice versa.
In the modern world, each land area is ruled over by a State organization, but there are a number of States scattered over the earth, each with a monopoly of violence over its own territory. No super-State exists with a monopoly of violence over the entire world; and so a state of 'anarchy' exists between the several States. (It has always been a source of wonder, incidentally, to this writer how the same conservatives who denounce as lunatic any proposal for eliminating a monopoly of violence over a given territory and thus leaving private individuals without an overlord, should be equally insistent upon leaving States without an overlord to settle disputes between them. The former is always denounced as 'crackpot anarchism'; the latter is hailed as preserving independence and 'national sovereignty' from 'world government.') And so, except for revolutions, which occur only sporadically, the open violence and two-sided conflict in the world takes place between two or more States, that is, in what is called 'international war' (or 'horizontal violence').
Now there are crucial and vital differences between inter-State warfare on the one hand and revolutions against the State or conflicts between private individuals on the other. One vital difference is the shift in geography. In a revolution, the conflict takes place within the same geographical area: both the minions of the State and the revolutionaries inhabit the same territory. Inter-State warfare, on the other hand, takes place between two groups, each having a monopoly over its own geographical area; that is, it takes place between inhabitants of different territories. From this difference flow several important consequences: (1) in inter-State war the scope for the use of modern weapons of destruction is far greater. For if the 'escalation' of weaponry in an intra-territorial conflict becomes too great, each side will blow itself up with the weapons directed against the other. Neither a revolutionary group nor a State combating revolution, for example, can use nuclear weapons against the other. But, on the other hand, when the warring parties inhabit different territorial areas, the scope for modern weaponry becomes enormous, and the entire arsenal of mass devastation can come into play. A second consequence (2) is that while it is possible for revolutionaries to pinpoint their targets and confine them to their State enemies, and thus avoid aggressing against innocent people, pinpointing is far less possible in an inter-State war.(Refer references 6 below) This is true even with older weapons; and, of course, with modern weapons there can be no pinpointing whatever. Furthermore, (3) since each State can mobilize all the people and resources in its territory, the other State comes to regard all the citizens of the opposing country as at least temporarily its enemies and to treat them accordingly by extending the war to them. Thus, all of the consequences of inter-territorial war make it almost inevitable that inter-State war will involve aggression by each side against the innocent civilians – the private individuals – of the other. This inevitability becomes absolute with modern weapons of mass destruction.
If one distinct attribute of inter-State war is inter-territoriality, another unique attribute stems from the fact that each State lives by taxation over its subjects. Any war against another State, therefore, involves the increase and extension of taxation-aggression over its own people.(Refer references 7 below) Conflicts between private individuals can be, and usually are, voluntarily waged and financed by the parties concerned. Revolutions can be, and often are, financed and fought by voluntary contributions of the public. But State wars can only be waged through aggression against the taxpayer.
All State wars, therefore, involve increased aggression against the State's own taxpayers, and almost all State wars (all, in modern warfare) involve the maximum aggression (murder) against the innocent civilians ruled by the enemy State. On the other hand, revolutions are generally financed voluntarily and may pinpoint their violence to the State rulers, and private conflicts may confine their violence to the actual criminals. The libertarian must, therefore, conclude that, while some revolutions and some private conflicts may be legitimate, State wars are always to be condemned.
Many libertarians object as follows: 'While we too deplore the use of taxation for warfare, and the State's monopoly of defense service, we have to recognize that these conditions exist, and while they do, we must support the State in just wars of defense.' The reply to this would go as follows: 'Yes, as you say, unfortunately States exist, each having a monopoly of violence over its territorial area.' What then should be the attitude of the libertarian toward conflicts between these States? The libertarian should say, in effect, to the State: 'All right, you exist, but as long as you exist at least confine your activities to the area which you monopolize.' In short, the libertarian is interested in reducing as much as possible the area of State aggression against all private individuals. The only way to do this, in international affairs, is for the people of each country to pressure their own State to confine its activities to the area which it monopolizes and not to aggress against other State-monopolists. In short, the objective of the libertarian is to confine any existing State to as small a degree of invasion of person and property as possible. And this means the total avoidance of war. The people under each State should pressure 'their' respective States not to attack one another, and, if a conflict should break out, to negotiate a peace or declare a cease-fire as quickly as physically possible.
Suppose further that we have that rarity – an unusually clear-cut case in which the State is actually trying to defend the property of one of its citizens. A citizen of country A travels or invests in country B, and then State B aggresses against his person or confiscates his property. Surely, our libertarian critic would argue, here is a clear-cut case where State A should threaten or commit war against State B in order to defend the property of 'its' citizen. Since, the argument runs, the State has taken upon itself the monopoly of defense of its citizens, it then has the obligation to go to war on behalf of any citizen, and libertarians have an obligation to support this war as a just one.
But the point again is that each State has a monopoly of violence and, therefore, of defense only over its territorial area. It has no such monopoly; in fact, it has no power at all, over any other geographical area. Therefore, if an inhabitant of country A should move to or invest in country B, the libertarian must argue that he thereby takes his chances with the State-monopolist of country B, and it would be immoral and criminal for State A to tax people in country A and kill numerous innocents in country B in order to defend the property of the traveler or investor.(Refer references 8 below)
It should also be pointed out that there is no defense against nuclear weapons (the only current 'defense' is the threat of mutual annihilation) and, therefore, that the State cannot fulfill any sort of defense function so long as these weapons exist.
The libertarian objective, then, should be, regardless of the specific causes of any conflict, to pressure States not to launch wars against other States and, should a war break out, to pressure them to sue for peace and negotiate a cease-fire and peace treaty as quickly as physically possible. This objective, incidentally, is enshrined in the international law of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, that is, the ideal that no State could aggress against the territory of another – in short, the 'peaceful coexistence' of States.(Refer references 9 below)
Suppose, however, that despite libertarian opposition, war has begun and the warring States are not negotiating a peace. What, then, should be the libertarian position? Clearly, to reduce the scope of assault on innocent civilians as much as possible. Old-fashioned international law had two excellent devices for this: the 'laws of war,' and the 'laws of neutrality' or 'neutrals' rights.' The laws of neutrality are designed to keep any war that breaks out confined to the warring States themselves, without aggression against the States or particularly the peoples of the other nations. Hence the importance of such ancient and now forgotten American principles as 'freedom of the seas' or severe limitations upon the rights of warring States to blockade neutral trade with the enemy country. In short, the libertarian tries to induce neutral States to remain neutral in any inter-State conflict and to induce the warring States to observe fully the rights of neutral citizens. The 'laws of war' were designed to limit as much as possible the invasion by warring States of the rights of the civilians of the respective warring countries. As the British jurist F.J.P. Veale put it:
'The fundamental principle of this code was that hostilities between civilized peoples must be limited to the armed forces actually engaged.... It drew a distinction between combatants and noncombatants by laying down that the sole business of the combatants is to fight each other and, consequently, that noncombatants must be excluded from the scope of military operations.'(Refer references 10 below)
In the modified form of prohibiting the bombardment of all cities not in the front line, this rule held in Western European wars in recent centuries until Britain launched the strategic bombing of civilians in World War II. Now, of course, the entire concept is scarcely remembered, the very nature of nuclear war resting on the annihilation of civilians.
In condemning all wars, regardless of motive, the libertarian knows that there may well be varying degrees of guilt among States for any specific war. But the overriding consideration for the libertarian is the condemnation of any State participation in war. Hence his policy is that of exerting pressure on all States not to start a war, to stop one that has begun and to reduce the scope of any persisting war in injuring civilians of either side or no side.
A neglected corollary to the libertarian policy of peaceful coexistence of States is the rigorous abstention from any foreign aid; that is, a policy of nonintervention between States (= 'isolationism' = 'neutralism'). For any aid given by State A to State B (1) increases tax aggression against the people of country A and (2) aggravates the suppression by State B of its own people. If there are any revolutionary groups in country B, then foreign aid intensifies this suppression all the more. Even foreign aid to a revolutionary group in B – more defensible because directed to a voluntary group opposing a State rather than a State oppressing the people – must be condemned as (at the very least) aggravating tax aggression at home.
Let us see how libertarian theory applies to the problem of imperialism, which may be defined as the aggression by State A over the people of country B, and the subsequent maintenance of this foreign rule. Revolution by the B people against the imperial rule of A is certainly legitimate, provided again that revolutionary fire be directed only against the rulers. It has often been maintained – even by libertarians – that Western imperialism over undeveloped countries should be supported as more watchful of property rights than any successor native government would be. The first reply is that judging what might follow the status quo is purely speculative, whereas existing imperialist rule is all too real and culpable. Moreover, the libertarian here begins his focus at the wrong end – at the alleged benefit of imperialism to the native. He should, on the contrary, concentrate first on the Western taxpayer, who is mulcted and burdened to pay for the wars of conquest, and then for the maintenance of the imperial bureaucracy. On this ground alone, the libertarian must condemn imperialism.(Refer references 11 below)
Does opposition to all war mean that the libertarian can never countenance change – that he is consigning the world to a permanent freezing of unjust regimes? Certainly not. Suppose, for example, that the hypothetical state of 'Waldavia' has attacked 'Ruritania' and annexed the western part of the country. The Western Ruritanians now long to be reunited with their Ruritanian brethren. How is this to be achieved? There is, of course, the route of peaceful negotiation between the two powers, but suppose that the Waldavian imperialists prove adamant. Or, libertarian Waldavians can put pressure on their government to abandon its conquest in the name of justice. But suppose that this, too, does not work. What then? We must still maintain the illegitimacy of Ruritania's mounting a war against Waldavia. The legitimate routes are (1) revolutionary uprisings by the oppressed Western Ruritanian people, and (2) aid by private Ruritanian groups (or, for that matter, by friends of the Ruritanian cause in other countries) to the Western rebels – either in the form of equipment or of volunteer personnel.(Refer references 12 below)
We have seen throughout our discussion the crucial importance, in any present-day libertarian peace program, of the elimination of modern methods of mass annihilation. These weapons, against which there can be no defense, assure maximum aggression against civilians in any conflict with the clear prospect of the destruction of civilization and even of the human race itself. Highest priority on any libertarian agenda, therefore, must be pressure on all States to agree to general and complete disarmament down to police levels, with particular stress on nuclear disarmament. In short, if we are to use our strategic intelligence, we must conclude that the dismantling of the greatest menace that has ever confronted the life and liberty of the human race is indeed far more important than demunicipalizing the garbage service [which is another issue that Libertarians address].
We cannot leave our topic without saying at least a word about the domestic tyranny that is the inevitable accompaniment of war. The great Randolph Bourne realized that 'war is the health of the State.'(Refer references 13 below) It is in war that the State really comes into its own: swelling in power, in number, in pride, in absolute dominion over the economy and the society. Society becomes a herd, seeking to kill its alleged enemies, rooting out and suppressing all dissent from the official war effort, happily betraying truth for the supposed public interest. Society becomes an armed camp, with the values and the morale – as Albert Jay Nock once phrased it – of an 'army on the march.'
The root myth that enables the State to wax fat off war is the canard that war is a defense by the State of its subjects. The facts, of course, are precisely the reverse. For if war is the health of the State, it is also its greatest danger. A State can only 'die' by defeat in war or by revolution. In war, therefore, the State frantically mobilizes the people to fight for it against another State, under the pretext that it is fighting for them. But all this should occasion no surprise; we see it in other walks of life. For which categories of crime does the State pursue and punish most intensely – those against private citizens or those against itself? The gravest crimes in the State's lexicon are almost invariably not invasions of person and property, but dangers to its own contentment: for example, treason, desertion of a soldier to the enemy, failure to register for the draft, conspiracy to overthrow the government. Murder is pursued haphazardly unless the victim be a policeman, or 'Gott soll hüten' ['God will guard'], an assassinated Chief of State; failure to pay a private debt is, if anything, almost encouraged, but income tax evasion is punished with utmost severity; counterfeiting the State's money is pursued far more relentlessly than forging private checks, etc. All this evidence demonstrates that the State is far more interested in preserving its own power than in defending the rights of private citizens.
A final word about conscription: of all the ways in which war aggrandizes the State, this is perhaps the most flagrant and most despotic. But the most striking fact about conscription is the absurdity of the arguments put forward on its behalf. A man must be conscripted to defend his (or someone else's?) liberty against an evil State beyond the borders. Defend his liberty? How? By being coerced into an army whose very raison d'ętre is the expunging of liberty, the trampling on all the liberties of the person, the calculated and brutal dehumanization of the soldier and his transformation into an efficient engine of murder at the whim of his 'commanding officer'?(Refer references 14 below) Can any conceivable foreign State do anything worse to him than what 'his' army is now doing for his alleged benefit? Who is there, O Lord, to defend him against his 'defenders'?
References
1 There are some libertarians who would go even further and say that no one should employ violence even in defending himself against violence. However, even such Tolstoyans, or 'absolute pacifists,' would concede the defender's right to employ defensive violence and would merely urge him not to exercise that right. They, therefore, do not disagree with our proposition. In the same way, a libertarian temperance advocate would not challenge a man's right to drink liquor, only his wisdom in exercising that right.
2 We shall not attempt to justify this axiom here. Most libertarians and even conservatives are familiar with the rule and even defend it; the problem is not so much in arriving at the rule as in fearlessly and consistently pursuing its numerous and often astounding implications.
3 Or, to bring up another famous antipacifist slogan, the question is not whether 'we would be willing to use force to prevent the rape of our sister,' but whether, to prevent that rape, we are willing to kill innocent people and perhaps even the sister herself.
4 William Buckley and other conservatives have propounded the curious moral doctrine that it is no worse to kill millions than it is to kill one man. The man who does either is, to be sure, a murderer; but surely it makes a huge difference how many people he kills. We may see this by phrasing the problem thus: after a man has already killed one person, does it make any difference whether he stops killing now or goes on a further rampage and kills many dozen more people? Obviously, it does.
5 Professor Robert L. Cunningham has defined the State as the institution with 'a monopoly on initiating open physical coercion.' Or, as Albert Jay Nock put it similarly if more caustically, 'The State claims and exercises the monopoly of crime.... It forbids private murder, but itself organizes murder on a colossal scale. It punishes private theft, but itself lays unscrupulous hands on anything it wants.'
6 An outstanding example of pinpointing by revolutionaries was the invariable practice of the Irish Republican Army, in its later years, of making sure that only British troops and British government property were attacked and that no innocent Irish civilians were injured. A guerrilla revolution not supported by the bulk of the people, of course, is far more likely to aggress against civilians.
7 If it be objected that a war could theoretically be financed solely by a State's lowering of nonwar expenditures, then the reply still holds that taxation remains greater than it could be without the war effect. Moreover, the purport of this article is that libertarians should be opposed to government expenditures whatever the field, war or nonwar.
8 There is another consideration which applies rather to 'domestic' defense within a State's territory: the less the State can successfully defend the inhabitants of its area against attack by criminals, the more these inhabitants may come to learn the inefficiency of state operations, and the more they will turn to non-State methods of defense. Failure by the State to defend, therefore, has educative value for the public.
9 The international law mentioned in this paper is the old-fashioned libertarian law as had voluntarily emerged in previous centuries and has nothing to do with the modern statist accretion of 'collective security.' Collective security forces a maximum escalation of every local war into a worldwide war – the precise reversal of the libertarian objective of reducing the scope of any war as much as possible.
10 F.J.P. Veale, Advance to Barbarism (Appleton, Wis.: C.C. Nelson, 1953), p. 58.
11 Two other points about Western imperialism: first, its rule is not nearly so liberal or benevolent as many libertarians like to believe. The only property rights respected are those of the Europeans; the natives find their best lands stolen from them by the imperialists and their labor coerced by violence into working the vast landed estates acquired by this theft.
Second, another myth holds that the 'gunboat diplomacy' of the turn of the century was a heroic libertarian action in defense of the property rights of Western investors in backward countries. Aside from our above strictures against going beyond any State's monopolized land area, it is overlooked that the bulk of gunboat moves were in defense, not of private investments, but of Western holders of government bonds. The Western powers coerced the smaller governments into increasing tax aggression on their own people, in order to pay off foreign bondholders. By no stretch of the imagination was this an action on behalf of private property – quite the contrary.
12 The Tolstoyan wing of the libertarian movement could urge the Western Ruritanians to engage in nonviolent revolution, for example, tax strikes, boycotts, mass refusal to obey government orders or a general strike – especially in arms factories. Cf. the work of the revolutionary Tolstoyan, Bartelemy De Ligt, 'The Conquest of Violence: An Essay On War and Revolution' (New York: Dutton, 1938).
13 See Randolph Bourne, 'Unfinished Fragment on the State,' in Untimely Papers (New York: B.W. Huebsch, 1919).
14 To the old militarist taunt hurled against the pacifist: 'Would you use force to prevent the rape of your sister?' the proper retort is: 'Would you rape your sister if ordered to do so by your commanding officer?'" - Murray N. Rothbard
[1926–1995], an American author and economist of the Austrian School who helped define modern libertarianism. He was the author of 'Man, Economy, and State', 'Conceived in Liberty', 'What Has Government Done to Our Money', 'For a New Liberty', 'The Case Against the Fed', and many other books and articles. He was also the editor – with Lew Rockwell – of 'The Rothbard-Rockwell Report', and academic vice president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute.
This extensive quote comes from the article, 'War, Peace, and the State', which first appeared in 'The Standard' for April 1963.
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"Whoever wants lastingly to establish good government must start by trying to persuade [and educate rather than force through coercion and/or fraud] his fellow citizens and offering them sound ideologies...There is no hope left for a [democratic] civilization when the masses [majority] favor [and therefore vote for] harmful policies." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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"All that good government can do to improve the material well-being of the masses is to [1] establish and to preserve an institutional setting in which there are no obstacles to the progressive accumulation of new capital and its utilization for the improvement of technical methods of production... [2] protect the individuals within the country against the violent and fraudulent attacks of gangsters, and it should defend the country against foreign enemies." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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"Governments become [classically] liberal only when forced to by the citizens. [Therefore citizens need to become concerned and informed about the influence of politics in life to their quality of life and standard of living, political philosophies, policies and current affairs in order to constructively contribute to and support classical liberal governments, parties, politicians, policies and proceedures.]" - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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"It is in the nature of the men handling the apparatus of compulsion and coercion to overrate its power to work, and to strive at subduing all spheres of human life to its immediate influence... History provides an abundance of striking examples to show that, in the long run, even the most ruthless policy of repression does not suffice to maintain a government in power." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.36027] Need Area: Friends > General
"The government pretends to be endowed with the mystical power to accord favors out of an inexhaustible horn of plenty. It is both omniscient and omnipotent. It can by a magic wand create happiness and abundance... The government and its chiefs do not have the powers of the mythical Santa Claus. They cannot spend except by taking out of the pockets of some people for the benefit of others." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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"Government works best under the glare of public scrutiny. Absent such scrutiny, abuses occur." - Professor Stephen Hawking
[1942 - ], English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author.
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"How Socialism Works [and why all its good intentions fail in really helping a group of people in reality. Even though it may initially sound good in theory, it does not show the deep insight into human nature and incentives that free market capitalism does, where economic philosopher Adam Smith's 'enlightened self-interest' winds up raising the living standards of the group.] - A simple illustration of how socialism - forced equality - reduces incentives to work... An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.
That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said, 'OK, we will have an experiment in this class.......' All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed." - Colin Twiggs
http://www.incrediblecharts.com/economy/socialism.php
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| [Quote No.36058] Need Area: Friends > General
"Daily experience proves clearly to everybody but the most bigoted fanatics of socialism that governmental management is inefficient and wasteful... There is no remedy for the inefficiency of public management [due to the lack of competition and incentives that do not make the consumer the sovereign power that guides all behaviour. Therefore the services that the government should be allowed to provide [less efficiently, responsively and productively than private competition would] should be kept to the bare minimum]." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.36059] Need Area: Friends > General
"Once the principle is admitted that it is duty of government to protect the individual against his own foolishness, no serious objections can be advanced against further encroachments." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.36060] Need Area: Friends > General
"Every act of the government which can and must be done by administrative discretion with regard to the special merits of each case can be used for the achievement of the government's political aims [and is therefore open to manipulation, discrimination and corruption]." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.36065] Need Area: Friends > General
"[Law and order, crime and punishment/correction:] It may or may not be true that to know ALL is to forgive ALL and 'There but for the grace of God/fate/luck, go I', but that does not deny the importance of free will and the negative consequences required to provide an incentive to [avoid just punishment] for the future behaviour of that individual and others as well as the requirement to protect the community that does respect the equal inalienable rights of others to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and private property, implicit and explicit within social norms and the social contract." - Seymour@imagi-natives.com
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| [Quote No.36083] Need Area: Friends > General
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.-- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
[The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. - The Ninth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.]
[The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. - The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.]" - The Founding Fathers of the United States of America
The Declaration of Independence, In Congress, July 4, 1776.
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| [Quote No.36084] Need Area: Friends > General
"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?" - Ronald Reagan
US President, January 20, 1981
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| [Quote No.36091] Need Area: Friends > General
"Sin is sweet in the beginning, but bitter in the end. [While virtue is bitter in the beginning, but sweet in the end.]" - The Talmud
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| [Quote No.36105] Need Area: Friends > General
"As human nature [with individual ego] is, everybody is prone to overrate his own worth and deserts." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.36106] Need Area: Friends > General
"If one rejects [capitalist, free market - free choice] laissez faire on account of man's fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reasons also reject every kind of government action [as in fascism, socialism, communism, statism, etc, as these suffer from the same only with more people]." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.36110] Need Area: Friends > General
"No one can escape the influence of a prevailing [political, economic, environmental, social, technological, etc] ideology... No one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle [and the political debate]. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result... We must fight all that we dislike in public life. We must substitute better ideas for wrong ideas... Only ideas can overcome ideas... Both force and money are impotent against ideas... In a battle between force and an idea, the latter always prevails... Even a manifestly erroneous doctrine should be refuted by careful analysis and the unmasking of the fallacies implied. A sound doctrine can win only by exploding the delusions of its adversaries... Great conflicts of ideas must be solved by straight and frank methods; they cannot be solved by artifices and makeshifts." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.36111] Need Area: Friends > General
"No mass [political, economic, environmental, social, technological, etc] phenomenon can be adequately treated without analysing the ideas implied." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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| [Quote No.36112] Need Area: Friends > General
"In the long run even the most despotic governments with all their brutality and cruelty are no match for ideas. Eventually the ideology that has won the support of the majority will prevail and cut the ground from under the tyrant’s feet. Then the oppressed many will rise in rebellion and overthrow their masters." - Ludwig von Mises
[1881 – 1973], an Austrian-American economist, historian, philosopher, author, and classical liberal who had a significant influence on the modern free-market libertarian movement and the Austrian School of economics.
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