[Excerpted from Out of Step (1962)] In the century since Marx propounded the theories on which he based the inevitability of the coming of socialism, every one of these theories has been proven fallacious, until now when even the avowed socialists avoid mentioning them. And yet, socialism is with us. It has come not by way of Marx but by methods
[ Out of Step (1962). An MP3 audio file of this article, narrated by Colin Hussey, is available for download .] It is a gross exaggeration to say that all politicians are “crooked.” The percentage of dishonesty — the sense in which the derogatory word is used — is no greater among those who engage in politics than it is among merchants,
[ The Rise and Fall of Society (1959; 2007)] Beginning with the obvious — there must be men before there is a Society, and there must be a Society before there is a Government. Social institutions must seminate in the soil of which the individual is made. Therefore, we are compelled to ask the individual, the unit of social life, to tell us
[ Income Tax: Root of All Evil (1954)] To be sure, the original Populists, and the aping Democrats and Republicans, to say nothing of the conscious Socialists, little thought that their income-tax gadget would ever be used to “soak the poor.” It was an instrument, they thought, that could lend itself to no other purpose than to expropriate
[ The Rise and Fall of Society (1959)] The techniques of the market place evolve from man’s unceasing drive toward a richer and fuller life. One technique that plays a most important part in this general purpose is competition, or the vying among the specialists for the favor of the community. Although the competitors are motivated by
[From Out of Step: The Autobiography of an Individualist , by Frank Chodorov; The Devin-Adair Company, New York, 1962, pp. 216-239.] The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines taxation as “that part of the revenues of a state which is obtained by the compulsory dues and charges upon its subjects.” That is about as concise and accurate as a
[From Out of Step: The Autobiography of an Individualist , by Frank Chodorov; The Devin-Adair Company, New York, 1962, pp. 216-239.] A basic immorality becomes the center of a vortex of immoralities. When the State invades the right of the individual to the products of his labors it appropriates an authority which is contrary to the nature
The bottle is now labeled libertarianism. But its content is nothing new; it is what in the nineteenth century, and up to the time of Franklin Roosevelt, was called liberalism — the advocacy of limited government and a free economy. (If you think of it, you will see that there is a redundancy in this formula, for a government of limited
Free will is the starting point of all ethical thinking and it plays an equally important part in the business of making a living. If man were not endowed with this capacity for making choices, he could not be held accountable for his behavior, any more than could a fish or a fowl — an amoral being, a thing without a sense of morals. So, if man
[ Adapted from an address before the American Farm Bureau “Farm, Family and Christian Resources” Conference, October 30, 1958; reprinted in The Freeman, January 1959. ] Free will is the starting point of all ethical thinking and it plays an equally important part in the business of making a living. If man were not endowed with this capacity for
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
