Socialism means dictatorship, necessarily survives as dictatorship, and no centrally produced accounting ratios will change that fact. As such, competition is literally impossible under socialism, and this cannot be changed by the introduction of centrally administered accounting ratios.
I am making the simple observation that even if the US government "did nothing" according to the man on the street, it still would have been interfering very heavily in the situation in Haiti. The Haitians have been "enjoying" the help of the US military for years, which is partly why they were so ill equipped to deal with a powerful earthquake.
What Hazlitt is saying is this: "If we want to keep our free political system, here are the economic principles to which we must return."
But prosperity can't be printed. Government edicts won't magically make us better off. Their fatal conceit will only lead us to disaster.
Presented by David Gordon at “The Failure of the Keynesian State,” the Mises Circle in Houston, sponsored by Jeremy S. Davis.
Presented by Douglas E. French at “The Failure of the Keynesian State,” the Mises Circle in Houston, sponsored by Jeremy S. Davis.
Presented by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. at “The Failure of the Keynesian State,” the Mises Circle in Houston, sponsored by Jeremy S. Davis.
Therefore, whether it is disproportionally hurting African-American teen workers with minimum-wage laws or further endangering already-endangered species, the state is no match for market mechanisms. It remains a slave to unforeseen consequences.
The net profit of reform is the accumulation of State power; the net loss is borne by Society.
That a functioning market presupposes not only prevention of violence and fraud but the protection of certain rights, such as property, and the enforcement of contracts, is always taken for granted.
