Sometimes we forget what a genius Ludwig von Mises was.
Who am I kidding, no we don't. Given recent discussion on universal health care, additional governmental bureaucracies for charity, foreign affairs, and energy, and the idea that governmental solutions to governmental problems, I thought it fitting to include a few quotes from your man and mine, Ludwig von.
The planner is a potential dictator who wants to deprive all other people of the power to plan and act according to their own plans. He aims at one thing only: the exclusive absolute preeminence of his own plan.
At the bottom of all this fanatical advocacy of planning and socialism there is often nothing else than the intimate consciousness of ones own inferiority and inefficiency.
All this passionate praise of the supereminence of government action is but a poor disguise for the individual interventionists self-deification. The great god State is a great god only because it is expected to do exclusively what the individual advocate of interventionism wants to see achieved.
The writings of the socialists are full of such utopian fancies. Whether they call themselves Marxian or non-Marxian socialists, technocrats, or simply planners [hell, even Republicans and Democracts], they are all eager to show how foolishly things are arranged in reality and how happily men could live if they were to invest the reformers with dictatorial powers. [Brackets by Barry]
If a man says socialism, or planning, he always has in view his own brand of socialism, his own plan. Thus planning does not in fact mean preparedness to cooperate peacefully. It means conflict.
The social engineer is the reformer who is prepared to liquidate all those who do not fit into his plan for the arrangement of human affairs.
He's just filled with these beautiful insights. To learn more about him (as well as find more of these quotes) go to the Ludwig von Mises Institute at mises.org. It is also a useful site for anyone interested in Austrian Economics, anarcho-capitalism, Libertarian studies, and all sorts of goodness. They have free online books, lecture series, debates, articles, and essays. Which just goes to prove that capitalists [even the most die hard] don't necessarily have to be greedy, hoarding, or selfish.
P.S. Be sure to check out the stuff by Murray Rothbard, Walter Block, Herman Hans-Hoppe, Joseph T. Salerno, and many others.
Who am I kidding, no we don't. Given recent discussion on universal health care, additional governmental bureaucracies for charity, foreign affairs, and energy, and the idea that governmental solutions to governmental problems, I thought it fitting to include a few quotes from your man and mine, Ludwig von.
The planner is a potential dictator who wants to deprive all other people of the power to plan and act according to their own plans. He aims at one thing only: the exclusive absolute preeminence of his own plan.
At the bottom of all this fanatical advocacy of planning and socialism there is often nothing else than the intimate consciousness of ones own inferiority and inefficiency.
All this passionate praise of the supereminence of government action is but a poor disguise for the individual interventionists self-deification. The great god State is a great god only because it is expected to do exclusively what the individual advocate of interventionism wants to see achieved.
The writings of the socialists are full of such utopian fancies. Whether they call themselves Marxian or non-Marxian socialists, technocrats, or simply planners [hell, even Republicans and Democracts], they are all eager to show how foolishly things are arranged in reality and how happily men could live if they were to invest the reformers with dictatorial powers. [Brackets by Barry]
If a man says socialism, or planning, he always has in view his own brand of socialism, his own plan. Thus planning does not in fact mean preparedness to cooperate peacefully. It means conflict.
The social engineer is the reformer who is prepared to liquidate all those who do not fit into his plan for the arrangement of human affairs.
He's just filled with these beautiful insights. To learn more about him (as well as find more of these quotes) go to the Ludwig von Mises Institute at mises.org. It is also a useful site for anyone interested in Austrian Economics, anarcho-capitalism, Libertarian studies, and all sorts of goodness. They have free online books, lecture series, debates, articles, and essays. Which just goes to prove that capitalists [even the most die hard] don't necessarily have to be greedy, hoarding, or selfish.
P.S. Be sure to check out the stuff by Murray Rothbard, Walter Block, Herman Hans-Hoppe, Joseph T. Salerno, and many others.
