In 1927, the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises published a short book titled Liberalism: The Classical Tradition. It was a time when free market capitalism was under attack from all sides. Socialism had been implemented in the Soviet Union. The Bolshevik leaders Lenin, Trotsky, and Stalin were finding admirers even among Western intellectuals.
In the days of the American Civil War, Americans were not exactly known for their ideological consistency. Many who sang the praises of the American secession in 1776 suddenly decided that the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence—where it states that it’s perfectly fine “for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another”—changed their minds and decided allegiance to the government is the most important thing in the world.
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As an Albanian man, I am usually struck by the ease with which so-called “democratic socialists” in America dismiss any criticism of their beloved socio-economic system. When I point out the fact that “real socialism” has been tried, and it has failed miserably everywhere it has been tried including in my country of origin, Albania, I am usually hit with some meta-Marxian paradigm of how communism is not socialism, and how the dictatorship of the proletariat is not communism.
In the year of the 250th anniversary of Jefferson’s Declaration, a growing share of the public believes capitalism has failed. Polls show socialism favored by 40 percent of Americans.
For those who understand that unlimited federal power is a threat to individual liberty, one area of great concern is the fourteenth amendment’s “equal protection” clause. The aim of this amendment was to give the federal government power to “protect” citizens from being discriminated against by their own states.
Ludwig von Mises was born 145 years ago today. The world is a very different place than it was back then, but Mises’s impact continues to be felt to this day.
