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They call themselves liberals, but they are intent upon abolishing liberty. They call themselves democrats, but they yearn for dictatorship. They call themselves revolutionaries, but they want to make the government omnipotent.

Ludwig von Mises

Every government intervention [in the marketplace] creates unintended consequences, which lead to calls for further government interventions.
LUDWIG VON MISES

Call Consequences Government Intervention Marketplace Unintended
It is the soil in which the seeds of freedom are nurtured and in which the autonomy of the individual and ultimately all intellectual and material progress are rooted.
LUDWIG VON MISES

Autonomy Freedom Individual Intellectual Nurture Progress Root Soil Ultimately
Depressions and mass unemployment are not caused by the free market but by government interference in the economy.
LUDWIG VON MISES

Depression Government Interference Market Mass Unemployment
The final outcome of the credit expansion is general impoverishment.
LUDWIG VON MISES

Credit Expansion Final General Impoverishment Outcome
The characteristic feature of a free society is that it can function in spite of the fact that its members disagree in many judgments of value.
LUDWIG VON MISES

Disagree Fact Function Judgement Mean Member Mistake Society Value
The interventionists do not approach the study of economic matters with scientific disinterestedness. Most of them are driven by an envious resentment against those whose incomes are larger than their own. This bias makes it impossible for them to see things as they really are.
LUDWIG VON MISES

Approach Distinteretedness Economic Entrepreneur Interventionist Liberty Matter People Scientific Study
For destruction is the essence of it. It produces nothing, it only consumes what the social order based on private ownership in the means of production has created.
LUDWIG VON MISES

Create Destruction Essence Private Production Social
Laissez faire does not mean: let soulless mechanical forces operate. It means: let individuals choose how they want to cooperate in the social division of labor and let them determine what the entrepreneurs should produce.
LUDWIG VON MISES

Choose Division Entrepreneur Faire Individual Labor Liassez Mean Mechanical Operate Soules
This is what capitalism, the much abused profit system, has brought about and brings about daily anew. Yet, most present-day governments and political parties are eager to destroy this system.
LUDWIG VON MISES

Abuse Capitalism Destroy Eager Government Most Profit System Yet
The champions of socialism call themselves progressives, but they recommend a system which is characterized by rigid observance of routine and by a resistance to every kind of improvement.
LUDWIG VON MISES

Bless Championship Characteristics Garden Men Observation Progressive Recommend Routine Socialism System
The causes of all panics, crashes and depressions can be summed up in only four words: the misuse of credit.
LUDWIG VON MISES

Causes Crash Credit Depression Four Panic Summed
Government is the only institution that can take a valuable commodity like paper, and make it worthless by applying ink.
LUDWIG VON MISES

Apply Government Ink Institution Paper Take Valuable Worthless
None can stand aside with unconcern; the interest of everyone hangs on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us.
LUDWIG VON MISES

Approach Battle Decisive Hang None Plunged Result Unconcern
A new type of superstition has got hold of people’s minds, the worship of the state. People demand the exercise of the methods of coercion and compulsion, of violence and threat. Woe to anybody who does not bend his knee to the fashionable idols!
LUDWIG VON MISES

Mind New People State Superstitious Type Worship
Society has arisen out of the works of peace; the essence of society is peacemaking. Peace and not war is the father of all things.
LUDWIG VON MISES

Arisen Essence Father Make Out Peace Society War Work
Economic prosperity is not so much a material problem; it is, first of all, an intellectual, spiritual, and moral problem.
LUDWIG VON MISES

Economic First Intellectual Problem Prosperity Spiritual

They call themselves liberals, but they are intent upon abolishing liberty. They call themselves democrats, but they yearn for dictatorship. They call themselves revolutionaries, but they want to make the government omnipotent.

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They call themselves liberals, but they are intent upon abolishing liberty. They call themselves democrats, but they yearn for dictatorship. They call themselves revolutionaries, but they want to make the government omnipotent.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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