Interventionism

Ludwig von Mises begins by recounting the origin and semantics of the term welfare state.

After an old red barn was given "heritage protection" by the city council, the owner demolished it anyway. Many townspeople cheered the defiance of the council's blatant violation of property rights.

Government spending overall—not just deficits—is the real problem. Government spending diverts wealth away from truly productive people and toward the government and its favored groups.

The Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of North America report provides the method of evaluating the economic freedom of Brazilian states. Results suggest that Brazilian states' freedom scores have been declining.

Pascal Salin investigates the contrast between French collectivism and it production of liberal intellectuals.

How much licensing requirements are designed to “protect” the health of the public, and how much to restrict competition, may be gauged from the fact that giving medical advice free without a license is rarely a legal offense. Only the sale of medical advice requires a license.

It is true that if labor becomes more efficient, workers must find other uses for the time they now have available. But why is this a problem? Human beings have unlimited wants, and there are always new uses for human labor.

Presented at the Mises Institute's "First Annual Advanced Instructional Conference in Austrian Economics" at Stanford University.

Hazlitt and all of the other critics of Keynes never did get to the primary points with respect to what was wrong with Keynes. One point was theoretical. The other was practical.