From the Great Depression to the Cold War, to the War on Terror, the regime repeatedly seeks to keep its citizens in a state of fear. And there's one "enemy" that is always there for the state to save us from: "greed" and capitalism.
It's too late for American member states to assert real independence from the central government without facing an avalanche of legal, political, and even military opposition. Europeans would be wise to not put themselves in a similar position.
The Igbo ethnic group in Africa is known for entrepreneurship, economic success, and a high degree of individualism. The group's cultural background can help us understand how culture and capitalism reinforce each other.
Franz Oppenheimer explains in detail the manner in which the state seizes control of society, one stage at a time.
Mises argues that the nation has a fundamental and relatively permanent being independent of the transient state (or states) which may govern it at any given time. Thus he refers to the nation as “an organic entity [which] can be neither increased nor reduced by changes in states.”
Donald Trump—despite adopting a number of economically intelligent policies—was completely unwilling to rein in federal spending. Then things got even worse.
Modern-day race theories—much like the standard racist theories of the past—assume that racial solidarity ought to be the overriding factor in all human behavior. Experience shows this is not at all always the case.
In a market economy, it is not the warlord or strongman who seizes control and lords it over his subjects. Rather, it is the common man as consumer who sets the terms for victory in the marketplace.
When some years ago I first read Murray Rothbard's description of Lord Acton as "the great Catholic libertarian historian," I suspected overstatement. The more I learned from and about Acton, however, the more Rothbard's words rang true.
The salient fact, and one which most writers fail to stress, is that, insofar as the working people then had a "choice of alternative benefits," they chose the conditions which the reformers condemned.
