Political Theory

This is the last formal lecture by Ludwig von Mises delivered May 2, 1970 at an economic seminar in Seattle, Washington.

When we adjust for the cost of living, we find that more economically free states in the US are richer, happier, and endure less poverty than the high-tax highly regulated states. Consequently, many people continue to move from less-free states to more-free states.

Progressives once bragged about how their economic policies favored whites over blacks in the job market. Nowadays, Progressives claim to be helping racial minorities, although their economic policies remain exactly the same.

Government regulation of immigrants is as illegitimate as any other kind of government regulation. But thanks to centuries of government meddling in private property, it remains very difficult to sort out what rightly is private property and if immigrants are trespassing on it.

Many are debating the nature of the state’s role in marriage, but the state has never been a friend to marriage of any kind, and has done much to undermine marriage’s economic and social benefits while substituting the state for family institutions.

A “living wage” is a function not just of wages, but also the cost of living. So why aren’t living-wage advocates picketing grocery stores, home sellers, and gas stations demanding they slash prices? Why are employers solely responsible for making everything affordable?

Bernie Sanders is not a new Mao or Marx. He’s really just a modern New Dealer, and he’s recycling old New Deal plans and rhetoric. And, just like the original, Sanders’ New Deal will do nothing to end our current economic malaise.

The myth that markets cause more inequality than controlled economies continues to endure. But the data showing that markets and industrialization make millions better off than other economic systems continues to pile up.

Following Supreme Court decisions, commentators often claim that a law is now "settled public policy." This is a tactic to silence dissent, and draws on fanciful ideas about the permanence of federal law. In real life, no political question is ever settled.

Law professor and bureaucrat Cass Sunstein makes the case for what he calls "Libertarian Paternalism" in his new book Why Nudge? The problem, David Gordon explains, is that Sunstein's plan assumes rationality and good faith among the government agents who do the "nudging."