What pushes the masses into the camp of socialism is, even more than the illusion that socialism will make them richer, the expectation that it will curb all those who are better than they themselves are.
Whoever neglects to examine to the best of his abilities all the problems involved voluntarily surrenders his birthright to a selfappointed elite of supermen.
The flowering of human society depends on two factors: the intellectual power of outstanding men to conceive sound social and economic theories, and the ability of these or other men to make these ideologies palatable to the majority.
If one rejects laissez faire on account of mans fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reason also reject every kind of government action.
The truth is that the government cannot give if it does not take from somebody…It is not in the power of the government to make everybody more prosperous.
They can open the way to credit expansion by the banks. They can thus create an artificial boom and the appearance of prosperity. But such a boom is bound to collapse soon or late and to bring about a depression.
Government spending cannot create additional jobs. If the government provides the funds required by taxing the citizens or by borrowing from the public, it abolishes on the one hand as many jobs as it creates on the other.
![Ludwig von Mises Quote - [E]conomic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics](https://minimalistquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/economic-history-is-a-long-record-of-government-po-683x1024.jpg)
