The State, The Enemy

Sir Ernest Benn

From the author: 

The following pages are concerned with the re-statement of old principles illustrated by examples selected from the happenings of the last forty years. In the Welfare State manufacturing delays contrast strangely with the speed of political movements, and it is well-nigh impossible for comment of the kind I offer to be in all respects up-to-date by the time that it reaches the reader. Much of my material was collected in the winter of 1951–52 and, with a change of Government some of it may not exactly fit the circumstances of 1953.

It should be clearly understood that this book is an ex-parte statement in the case of The Man v. The State, and makes no pretense to examine the other side of the subject.

The State, The Enemy by Sir Ernest Benn
Meet the Author
Sir Ernest Benn
Mises Daily Sir Ernest Benn
The 19th century was filled with enthusiasm for passing on to the future something better, for leaving behind more than it inherited, for providing for the children of the next generation. The 20th century has said: to hell with posterity.
Mises Daily Sir Ernest Benn
Our management of money is advocated as a way to save us from the rigors of the natural law, but it would appear that enormous inequality, indeed injustice, may result from these strange modern conceptions of the proper functions of a national treasury.
Mises Daily Sir Ernest Benn
I understand that in the United States there are still those who think that the machinery of government can be used as a substitute for personal responsibility on the part of the governed. This idea, as we know only too well in Britain, is the open road to disaster. It changes persons with responsibilities into robots with rights.
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References

Ernest Benn Limited, London, 1953