In the last section of his Bureaucracy, Ludwig von Mises laments the loss of the “critical sense” that protected people from authoritarianism (Mises 1944, 108). According to Mises, this was the fault of the bureaucratization of education, which taught students falsehoods, especially in economics (Mises 1944, 82). A prime example was the academic class in the German Empire, which formed an “intellectual bodyguard” (Mises 1944, 82) of the empire’s policies.

Ludwig von Mises is known for his theory of the business cycle and his development of praxeology, but he is best known for discrediting socialism. This critique is found in Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth (Mises 1990) and Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis (Mises 1951). In a similar vein is a work written near the end of the Second World War: Bureaucracy (Mises 1944). Mises observed shifts away from the market toward interventionism following the Great Depression and the Second World War.

Javier Milei, presiding over Argentina, the first libertarian president in history – self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist- has warranted worldwide attention and cast light over libertarianism around the globe. Libertarianism has become more widespread since he entered the political scene. This comes with a definitely positive side and a more dangerous one. The positive side is obviously that libertarianism is more popular than before.