Earlier this year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated Island in Between in the Best Documentary Short Film category at the ninety-sixth Academy Awards. Although it didn’t end up taking home the Oscar, the documentary drew attention to the little-known Kinmen Island and its precarious position as an inflection point in the relationship between Taiwan, mainland China, and the continuing involvement of the United States.

The consequences of this short-lived paradise [inflation] are malinvestment, waste, a wanton redistribution of wealth and income, the growth of speculation and gambling, immorality and corruption, disillusionment, social resentment, discontent, upheaval and riots, bankruptcy, increased governmental controls, and eventual collapse. — Hazlitt, Henry. Man vs. The Welfare State (LvMI) (p. 136). Ludwig von Mises Institute. Kindle Edition.

“A few months, at most.” 

The Social Security Act is considered the first federal social welfare program in American history, being signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935. American government pensions have existed for government employees and veterans since the Civil War, and private pension systems even longer. There was not great support for a public pension system in the US, as voluntary association and self-sufficiency was the standard.

Ludwig von Mises’s Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow has become quite popular recently. The Mises Book Store has sold out of its physical copies, and the PDF, which is available online for free, has seen over 50,000 downloads in the past few days.