Category Archive: 6b.) Mises.org

The Manifestation of Economic Laws Across Societies and Epochs

Economic laws, often regarded as objective principles governing the allocation of resources, have shaped human societies in various ways throughout history. These laws—including the dynamics of supply and demand, the role of private property, and the mechanisms of commodity exchange—are universal and operate across all epochs and societies. However, their manifestation varies significantly depending on the societal structure and historical...

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Covid Tyrants Partied While Demanding Lockdowns for Everyone Else

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...

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Henri Bergson: The Philosopher of Life and Creative Evolution

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...

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Socialist Man in the Big Easy

Marxists long theorized that communism would bring about the new socialist man. Through communist programs, man would turn his sole purpose to laboring and struggling for the greater good of the collective.Through socialist policies and redistribution, New Orleans has raised from its ruin a new socialist man. However, instead of working for the collective, this risen New Orleans man does not work at all. He does not live for the collective but...

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Why it’s Not Enough to Hate the State

This article is adapted from a lecture delivered at the Albuquerque Mises Circle in New Mexico, September 14, 2024. Listen to an audio version, here. Throughout its history, liberalism—the ideology today called “classical liberalism” or “libertarianism”—has suffered from the impression that it is primarily against things. This is not entirely wrong. Historically, liberalism coalesced as a recognizable ideology in opposition largely to mercantilism...

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The Big Con: No Matter the Form, Easy Money Is Still a Fraud

P.T. Barnum purportedly proclaimed that “There’s a sucker born every minute”, though there is no proof that he actually said it. Whether true in Barnum’s time or in today’s social-media era, however, the phrase describes those gullible enough to believe anything, even when their better judgment (if they possess any of that) tells them otherwise.Now comes a story about TikTok, where 40 percent of young adults get their news these days. Recent news...

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No Matter the Form, Easy Money Is Still a Fraud

P.T. Barnum purportedly proclaimed that “There’s a sucker born every minute”, though there is no proof that he actually said it. Whether true in Barnum’s time or in today’s social-media era, however, the phrase describes those gullible enough to believe anything, even when their better judgment (if they possess any of that) tells them otherwise.Now comes a story about TikTok, where 40 percent of young adults get their news these days. Recent news...

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To Beat the State, We Must Replace It

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...

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American Neocons Get Their Iran War as Congress Sleeps

Over the weekend, the Commander of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), General Michael Kurilla, arrived in Israel to “coordinate” with the Israeli military and plan a military strike against Iran. Think about that for a moment: one of the highest-ranking officers in the US military is planning a war in a foreign country against another foreign country which will be fueled by American weapons, American intelligence, and American tax dollars.Did that...

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Why Democracy Has Such Staying Power

As has often been noted, “majority rule” in the political sense does not exist in the way it is presented by the dominant institutions of Western so-called “democracies.” The Western public’s resistance to criticism of “democracy” is, therefore, remarkable.The staying power of representative democracy in the West can be explained as follows: Firstly, democracy is widely but uncritically seen as a progressive and enlightened political system that...

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Hurricanes Are Not Going Away; We Must Double Down on What’s Making Them More Survivable

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...

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What the New Jobs Report Really Says

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...

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Mute Buttons: Two Ways the School Complex Muzzles Parents and Students

I was asked the other day why parents and students do not have more say in their education in the government system, and my reply was simply “because that is the goal.” Specifically, the system exists to perpetuate itself and to propagandize large numbers of children each year so that they believe and pass on to their children the myths that permit government predation. In order to do so, the system and those in it must quash individuality of any...

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FEMA’s Incompetent Crisis Response

As I write this, another catastrophic hurricane barrels towards Florida, and I can only imagine not only the natural damage left in its wake, but the hopelessness many will feel when they realize the very agencies tasked to respond are not much more than political appointments, and far too inept to grasp the gravity of the task at hand. In the aftermath of a catastrophic event, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is tasked with...

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Hurricanes Are Not Going Away; We Must Double Down on What’s Making Them More Survivable

Two weeks ago, Hurricane Helene slammed into the Deep South and parts of Appalachia, bringing devastating floods to a region often spared from strong hurricanes. A variety of factors combined to make Helene an especially dangerous storm. First, it formed over the Gulf of Mexico, where waters tend to be warmer than the Atlantic. Second, the globe is currently experiencing a transition to La Niña conditions where unusually cold ocean temperatures in...

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The Many Roads to Liberty

Most readers of my weekly column already favor a libertarian society, with either a strictly limited government or no government at all. They realize what a disaster the state has been. What are the philosophical foundations of this outlook? There are many possible answers, but in this column, I’m going to discuss three of the most important of these, the way Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and Hans-Hermann Hoppe address this issue. I’m not...

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The “Fascist” Ad Hominem As an Act of Projection

A definition of “projection” is when one baselessly accuses others of doing something unsavory, immoral, or illegal that he is actually doing. For example, a thief who, without proof, accuses others of being thieves. This is what socialists do when they call their intellectual and political opponents “fascists” or compare them to Hitler. Fascism is socialism, as Lew Rockwell recently reminded us in an essay entitled “National Socialism Was...

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The Christian Faith in the Thought and Life of Frédéric Bastiat

“[L]iberty…is an act of faith in God and in His works.”This is how Frédéric Bastiat—a French economist known for his pioneering libertarian economic thought—concludes The Law, his most famous work. Reading his various writings and pamphlets, we can very often notice a recurring mention of God, or at least of a Creator, and of the morality that today we call “Judeo-Christian”; however, this faith found in his works can be found just as often in his...

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Survey Says: Disconnects Abound in School Opinions and Knowledge

Recently, EdChoice published its 2024 iteration of its annual Schooling in America report that surveys thousands of American adults and school parents regarding dozens of school-related topics and preferences. Within this report are numerous interesting results but also consistent reminders of disconnects between reality and belief, between public- and private-school parents, and between people’s words and actions.On the Wrong TrackThankfully, over...

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Government Jobs and Part-Time Work Are Behind the Latest Jobs Gains

Last Friday’s employment report from the Bureau of Labor statistics was labeled “shockingly good” by MSNBC, and as a “blowout” report by Reuters. According to the BLS, the US economy added 254,000 jobs in September, seasonally adjusted. That’s the biggest increase in six months.Defenders of the status quo seized upon this latest number as evidence that the US economy is in great shape. Uber-establishment economist Mark Zandi, for example, declared...

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