If an omnipotent authority has the power to assign to every individual the tasks he has to perform, nothing that can be called freedom and autonomy is left to him. He has only the choice between strict obedience and death by starvation.
Ch'ien was one of the world's first monetary theorists. He pointed out that increased quantity and a debased quality of coinage by government depreciates the value of money and makes prices rise. And he saw too that government inherently tended to engage in this sort of inflation and debasement.
Posner is — to the best of my knowledge — a magnanimous person with a genuine concern for the lives of millions of Americans, but his book, if heeded, will only exacerbate current conditions.
The human desire for freedom has always run up against those who believe "too much" freedom is a bad thing and that the "common good" — as defined by some elite — outweighs the rights of the individual.
"We don't know how many jobs have been lost because of the ones that have theoretically been saved or created."
When a merchant borrows 20,000 francs to purchase a house, it is not the 20,000 francs which he owes, but the house. Money only appears for the sake of facilitating the arrangements between the parties."
The eloquence was chiefly the doing of Goldwater's speechwriter and principal adviser during the 1964 campaign, the journalist and political ghostwriter Karl Hess. As Hess tells it, Senator Goldwater really was a genuine classical liberal.
What is necessary from people of all sides is refraining from initiating the use of force, no matter what the goal.
