In the 1960s, politicians and bureaucrats had nearly unbounded faith in the ability to plan a nearly perfect society. Things didn't turn out as they had planned.
Mises knew: “Mass unemployment destroys the moral foundations of the social order. The young people…forced to remain idle, are the ferment out of which the most radical political movements are formed."
A big reason that socialist ideology has staying power is the tactic of blaming the many failures and disasters of socialist regimes on the alleged fact the regimes "aren't real socialism."
Doing things for money does not justify moral condemnation, unless using money to support your family, live up to the agreements you have made, and to try not to burden others justifies moral condemnation.
With oil prices in likely long-term tailspin, corrupt governments can't count on oil sales to bail them out anymore. But Mexico's government didn't get the memo and still clings to the state oil monopoly.
John Maynard Keynes's supporters still insist that he was a mild and benign liberal. In truth, Keynes supported the blood-soaked Soviet regime and called himself a socialist.
