While most of us know George Orwell as an authoritative critic of totalitarianism, few people know he was a committed socialist and a lifelong defender of communist Leon Trotsky. While he understood totalitarianism, he never understood socialism.
The political theorist Anthony de Jasay takes on the left‘s ideas of equality, and David Gordon is there to agree—and disagree. Jasay likens the left‘s view of equality to the Indian Rope Trick.
Capitalism is characterized by the private ownership of capital, coming from Lockean homesteading principles, and not from state coercion and force.
In the early years, the pilgrims of Plymouth Colony adopted a 17th-century form of socialism and nearly starved to death. They had little to be thankful for until they gave up on dreams of utopia and turned to markets instead.
In this episode, Ryan McMaken takes a look at how the domestic and commercial rituals of the Thanksgiving holiday are things that communists really don‘t like.
Kamala Harris claims that she simply wants food prices to be lower. However, her de facto price fixing scheme would create food shortages and raise the real price of food. Of course, when that happens, Harris simply will blame capitalism.
Episodes that made a difference involved an ideological and philosophical battle about policy and the role of government. That’s what the Mises Institute is all about–we’re in the business of idea bombs.
Our troubles don't stem from quotas, set-asides, and the like. They stem from the presumption that the government should be monitoring discrimination in the first place.
Totalitarianism is not compatible with a functioning economic system based upon free exchange and private property. Such regimes depend upon historicism and logical relativism.
The original Mont Pelerin Society meeting in 1947 featured Ludwig von Mises, whose warnings about the dangers of socialism and totalitarianism had gone unheeded. In the wreckage of World War II, the truth of his message should have been obvious. It wasn't.
