Ludwig von Mises Archives
The Political Consequences of the Welfare State

Tags Big GovernmentInflationAustrian Economics OverviewInterventionism
Ludwig von Mises speaks about the political consequences of the welfare state. He begins by recounting the origin and semantics of the term welfare state. He then concentrates on how the interests of individual members of a legislature is not the welfare of the nation, but the welfare of its constituents. Mises believes the system of interventionist government leads to inflation.
Delivered at the meeting of the Mont Pèlerin Society in Princeton, New Jersey, on September 9, 1958.
Ludwig von Mises was the acknowledged leader of the Austrian school of economic thought, a prodigious originator in economic theory, and a prolific author. Mises's writings and lectures encompassed economic theory, history, epistemology, government, and political philosophy. His contributions to economic theory include important clarifications on the quantity theory of money, the theory of the trade cycle, the integration of monetary theory with economic theory in general, and a demonstration that socialism must fail because it cannot solve the problem of economic calculation. Mises was the first scholar to recognize that economics is part of a larger science in human action, a science that he called praxeology.