Big Government

"There is no greater example of why it is morally incumbent on everyone to oppose all forms of government intervention in all times. That includes, especially, wars that socialize the economy."

"While there are many who will agree that they, personally, should not kill, steal, enslave, it is only the individual with a first-rate moral nature who will have no hand in encouraging any agency — even government — in doing these things for him or others."

If a person has a right to his own life, liberty, and property, nothing can justify forcing him to subsidize another person for any purpose, including for the purpose of police protection.

"The notion of self-accountability is being eliminated by so-called 'progressives' who believe it unfair to struggle."

Abuse of the GDP equation leads economists and pundits to blame savings and praise reckless consumption, to hate imports and love exports, and (in principle) to attribute a doubling in the flow of goods coming out of factories to a nonchange in the level of a nonexistent stock of inventory.

The state benefits from the shortage of information that the speed of events imposes on people."

The only cartels that have lasted have been government cartels. There is no essential difference between a cartel and an ordinary corporation or partnership. Not even the De Beers cartel is all powerful.

The peanut butter crunch was in 1980. Crop acreage and production was cut down by 45% by government price support, import quotas, and cartelizing of the industry. The price of peanuts more than tripled.

Limited government is inherently immoral and must be rejected by any advocate of human freedom and justice in favor of competing agencies of retaliatory force.

Whether you are trying to understand the problem of growing governmental power yourself or are trying to communicate it to others, On Power can be heartily recommended as a stimulating and profound tract.