Mises Daily

All human action stems from the value judgments of individuals. Economics, properly understood, was never so foolish as to believe that all that people are after is higher incomes and lower prices.

J.B. Say and the French Liberal School absorbed a method of approach that was, implicitly at least, subjectivist and individualist. And herein lies the reason for many modern critics' disparagement of the Liberal School.

The Scholastics were constrained in their development of economics by considerations of deference to authority and by the relatively slow development of the external economic conditions upon which to reflect.

The liberal revolutions that paved the way for the industrial revolution were hallmarks of great progress against the state. As Lord Acton noted, a continuation of this revolutionary spirit is our best hope against the state.

"The power to issue money was essential for the finance of the government … in order to give to government access to the tap where it can draw the money it needs by manufacturing it."

The authentic German liberals have fallen into total obscurity. Today, the figures who are celebrated as early-twentieth century German liberals are men who were, in fact, collectivists and forerunners of the totalitarian state.

Humans use action to attain certain ends. But they must choose what actions to take. And choice also requires judgment about the best way to achieve the preferred ends. 

Equalization of incomes can be accomplished only by moving down the road toward serfdom.

States love wars because they enable the state, under the slogans of "defense" and "emergency," to impose a tyranny upon the public that might have been openly resisted in time of peace.

There is a persistent myth that capitalism has destroyed what would have been a natural abundance and peace of mind. Yet nature does not generate abundance or peace. The characteristic mark of the "state of nature" is irreconcilable conflict.