I am making the simple observation that even if the US government "did nothing" according to the man on the street, it still would have been interfering very heavily in the situation in Haiti. The Haitians have been "enjoying" the help of the US military for years, which is partly why they were so ill equipped to deal with a powerful earthquake.
With WWII, Morgans get their war in Europe; Rockefellers get their war in Asia. Both sides are happy. Rockefellers take over foreign relations and create the Trilateral Commission, while electing Carter President in 1977.
The mania for legislation would be, in an important degree, restrained if the government were compelled to pay the expenses of all the suits that grew out of it.
When John T. Flynn has put the Roosevelt myth through his terrible wringer and thrown aside the empty sack, all that remains of it is — the myth.
State dominated cartels used intellectuals as apologists for the government. Big unionism was to transmit orders to the working class. Public utilities were government monopolies for fifty year terms, run without any checks by the public. It is the function of government to run everything.
The total state claims the right to see you naked. A freer people would demand an end to such nonsense and the policies that perpetuate it.
The progressive period saw a re-alliance of church and state - secularized extreme Pietism (Protestant sects) with government as savior by intervening in markets. The Pure Food and Drug Act was a prototype for the whole progressive movement toward purity of body, mind and soul.
Mises illustrates his case with a review of the fall of Germany, from the collapse of classical liberalism to the rise of nationalism and socialism
All the oratory of the advocates of government omnipotence cannot annul the fact that there is but one system that makes for durable peace: a free market economy. Government control leads to economic nationalism and thus results in conflict.
Shiller's proposal, in contrast, gives the government a perverse incentive to raise tax receipts while strangling GDP. Isn't the government doing a great job of that already?
