Mises Daily

"Holt, in effect, reasoned his way to libertarianism from his relentless, dogged analysis of what worked and didn't work in education, in the schoolroom."

Like school vouchers, the flat tax, and other pretenders, the AFV assumes the necessity of state intervention and tries to bend liberty around such strictures.

Among the absolutist writers following Bodin, the 17th-century servitors of the absolute state, all hesitance or piety to the medieval legacy of strictly limited taxation was destined to disappear. State power, unlimited, was to be glorified.

The way to stop the brain and capital drain is readily at hand. Relinquish controls. Stop taxing people abroad. Adopt laissez-faire. Reinstitute freedom. Reject militarism and nationalism.

"Governmental taxation provides one mean by which fiat money could come into existence."

The lesson of Mises and Hayek is clear: there is no substitute for the private ownership. Without it, economic calculation in a modern economy cannot take place.

If a judge were to say that a horse is whatever the government calls a horse, and that the government has the right to call a chicken a horse, everybody would consider him corrupt or insane. Yet many theories of law argue that money is whatever the government calls money.

The failures of the state are becoming obvious and folks are taking notice. It is our responsibility to vigorously thrust ourselves into the intellectual battle and relentlessly advocate for free markets and liberty.

The inherent risk of the marketplace does not establish the marketplace as something that needs to be regulated and harnessed. On the contrary, inherent risk defines the market.

The percolation of ideas is an endlessly fascinating topic, and Margit von Mises adds scores of detail that will enable her readers to track the penetration of Mises's philosophy to the most unlikely places.