[This is a chapter from The Problem of Production: A New Theory of the Firm.]

[Chapter 19 of The Conquest of Poverty (1996)]

The socialists and communists propose to cure poverty by seizing private property, particularly property in the means of production, and turning it over to be operated by the government.

“By July 2026, the libertarian president’s approval rating has plummeted to 35.5 percent, with disapproval surging to 63 percent...”

Writing for Americans about the cultural background of Ludwig von Mises, an eminent former compatriot of mine, poses some difficulties: how to present you with a world radically different from yours, a world far away, which in many ways no longer exists. For example, the birthplace of this eminent economist was for nearly fifty years within the confines of the Soviet Union. Who was this great man and scholar? In what ambiance did he live before he came to the United States, where he continued to publish his crucially important works and to inspire new generations of economists?

Henry Hazlitt, author, journalist, editor, reviewer, economist, has written or edited 18 books and countless articles, columns, editorials, and book reviews. He has gained renown in at least three areas: as a popularizer of sound economic thinking, as a critic of John Maynard Keynes, and as a contributor to moral philosophy. His Economics in One Lesson (1946), a long-time best seller, is one of the finest introductions there is to sound economics.

[Hazlitt, Henry, “The Torrent of Laws,” The Wisdom of Henry Hazlitt, ed. Hans Sennholz (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Foundation for Economic Education, 1993), chap. 15. Originally appeared in the January 1979 issue of The Freeman.]

All over the United States, if you are reading this in a daylight hour, there is a ceaseless downpour of new laws. Every day some of us, somewhere, are being encumbered or shackled by still more restrictions. There are just too many laws.

But how do we tell how many laws are too many, and which ones are pernicious?

One of the US Senate’s most committed warmongers died over the weekend.