Mises Daily

With the possible exception of international trade, no topic in economics contains more myths than monetary theory. 

It is absurd to say we wish to do away with religion, education, property, labor, and the arts simply because we oppose government subsidies. Rather, we merely oppose stealing from one group of citizens and handing over their wealth to others.

The socialists cannot help admitting that capitalism has the tendency to improve the material conditions of mankind. But, they say, it has diverted men from the higher and nobler pursuits.

For the entrepreneur in a market economy, nothing is a sure thing. Every business is only a short step from bankruptcy. No business possesses the power to make people buy what they do not want. All success is potentially fleeting.

Representative democracy cannot subsist if a great part of the voters are on the government payroll. If elected officials no longer consider themselves servants of the taxpayers but deputies of those receiving salaries, doles, and subsidies, democracy is done for.

The salient fact, and one which most writers fail to stress, is that, insofar as the working people then had a "choice of alternative benefits," they chose the conditions which the reformers condemned.

"Austrian" economics owes its name to the historical fact that it was founded and first elaborated by three Austrians.

A reason for ongoing opposition to markets stems from the fact that for many centuries intellectuals, aristocrats, and government officials have believed the ancient doctrine that making money in the marketplace is degrading. 

One day, the Institute publishes an article criticizing Republicans. The Left cheers, but the Rights denounces us. The next day we criticize Democrats and the Right cheers while the Left is enraged. Yet our position is always consistently against the state. 

By keeping the population in a state of artificially heightened apprehension, the government-cum-media prepares the ground for planting specific measures of taxation, regulation, surveillance, reporting, and other invasions of the people's wealth, privacy, and freedoms.