The Language of Government Decisions

In the eyes of governments, the private sector is a big buffet table. The enticing cuisine is just sitting there, waiting to be dished out to satisfy the appetites of the rent seekers who reinforce government power. This is not merely a consequence of the statist inclinations of the ministers and bureaucrats in power at any given time. In fact, the interests of these rent seekers is carefully entrenched in the very fabric and vocabulary of the government decision-making process, where they are routinely consulted as “stakeholders” in decisions that concern their “interests.” And of course, this includes decisions that encroach on the rights of property owners to the benefit of these rent seekers, either through restraining the ability of the former to freely use their property, or through outright confiscation.

“Last Knight” Live Blog 8 -- Ransom

Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and Wieser’s “communist economy” modeled social phenomena as a pure logic constructed by and available to a single mind. Sometimes brilliant mistakes are the very thing which leads to revolutionary advance in social theory. The revolution came with Wittgenstein’s later “private language” argument and Mises’ discovery of the impossibility of economic calculation in a pure socialist system.

The Dazzling Vera Galt

A reader who was captivated by Vera Galt, the daughter of Henry Galt from Garet Garrett’s The Driver, sent in this picture to Mises.org. In her dress and manner she attempted capture Vera’s intelligence, independence, modernity, and strength of mind. As readers know, the book is set early in the twentieth century, and explores the culture of wealth on Wall Street.

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