Friday was tax day, which — for the non-Keynesians among us — often serves as a useful reminder of the burden imposed on us by the state. Of course, as Ryan McMaken reminds us, income taxes are only one piece of the puzzle — with every cent government spends representing cost taxpayers in one form or another. As Ludwig von Mises wrote in Human Action, “The metamorphosis of taxes into weapons of destruction is the mark of present-day public finance.” If only the United States would have heeded the wisdom of the Antifederalist Brutus, our government wouldn’t have the taxing powers it enjoys today — and perhaps be less likely to ruin our seafood.
Mises Weekends this week features a groundbreaking talk from Dr. Michel Accad. Speaking at AERC, Dr. Accad, who practices cardiology and internal medicine in San Francisco, discussed the fusion of Misesian insights with medicine. Highlighting how the predominant view of “the body as a machine” has played a major role in the rise of medical paternalism and one-size-fits all treatment. Dr. Accad proposes an alternative praxeological framework for medicine. By viewing health “as the state that is present when one’s physical and mental conditions allow the pursuit of one’s chosen ends,” he argues doctors will be able to provide better treatment for their patients.
And in case you missed any of them, here are the articles featured this week on the Mises Wire:
- The Drug War Drives Users to More Dangerous Synthetic Drugs by Benjamin M. Wiegold
- The Politics of Political Economists by Murray N. Rothbard
- Sound Money and Fiscal Policy by Paul-Martin Foss
- How Property Rights — Properly Understood — Limit the Spread of WMDs by Tate Fegley
- Japan’s Wild Monetary Experiment Is Far From Over by Brendan Brown
- Student Loans: No Credit? No Collateral? No Problem! by Jonathan Newman
- Ragnar Frisch: The First Nobel Laureate Chosen over Mises by Karl-Friedrich Israel
- What’s So Moral About Moral Hazard? by Matt McCaffrey
- The Ethics of Capitalism by Ludwig von Mises
- How the Government is Destroying the World’s Best Oysters by Tho Bishop
- Patrick Byrne and the Blockchain by Paul-Martin Foss
- A Tale about Taxes by Henry Hazlitt
- Time Magazine’s Oblivious Critique of China’s Rulers by Christopher Westley
- Crony Capitalists, Local Pols, and Refugee Resettlement by Joseph Salerno
- “Brutus” on Our Brutal Taxes by Gary Galles
- The Answer to “Unfair” Tax Breaks Is More Tax Breaks by Ryan McMaken
- For Keynesians, April 15 Is “Stimulus Day” by William Anderson
- Four Reasons Why Government Spending Is Even Worse Than Taxes by Ryan McMaken
- Ludwig von Mises’s 9 Best Tax Quotes
