Bureaucracy

I'll start off by saying I think this is probably the most under-valued books written by Mises. But here is my thought to those who have read it; doesn't Mises make a good argument for anarchy in this book? This is the book that won me over from "Classical-Liberalism" to Anarcho-Capitalism, and here is why: It is the argument of Classical Liberals that we need government to protect our person and property via rule of law and enforcement. Does this not mean that we are merely arguing that we need to make bureaucrats out of everyone in order to protect liberty? I personally believe that teaching morality, perhaps even objectivist morality of the Ayn Rand style, will go farther than making bureaucrats out of everyone because making bureaucrats out of people, even when done in such a way to provide protection against private property infringements, plants the seeds for future control (in other words, we're telling people to follow the rule of law to increase liberty and happiness. What is to stop any government from passing bad laws and telling its population "to increase liberty and happiness, you must follow these laws as well"?) Just some food for thought. I also came to the conclusion that the status of a nation, rule of law or anarchy, will reflect the opinion of its people.

I agree that this book is underrated. It, like all of Mises' books, is about so much more than the title implies. Thomas DiLorenzo said in a Mises Academy lecture that Bureaucracy is a great primer on Austrian Economics itself. And I totally agree. For those who don't have time to read Human Action, but want to read something longer than Profit and Loss, Bureaucracy is indeed an excellent introduction to AE. Mises takes such care to explain what bureaucracy is NOT, that he ends up giving one of his best explications of what the free market IS.