Ludwig von Mises - The Free Market Reader

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THE FREE
MARKET READER

ESSAYS IN THE
ECONOMICS OF LIBERTY

EDITED BY

LLEWELLYN H. ROCKWELL, JR.

The Ludwig von Mises Institute

Copyright 1988 by The Ludwig von Mises Institute

All rights reserved. Written permission must be secured from the publisher to use or reproduce any part of this book, except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles.

Published by The Ludwig von Mises Institute
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Typesetting by Thoburn Press, Tyler, Texas
Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 88-083186
ISBN 0-945466-02-1

TO O. P. ALFORD, III,

entrepreneur and activist
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Sheldon L. Richman

I n countries with openly tyrannical governments, we expect lies. From government newspapers, government officials, and every other aspect of the state propaganda apparatus, we assume deception.

What we do not expect is that the U.S. government does not operate much differently, even if the means are subtler.

Ludwig von Mises always distinguished between the two methods of acquiring wealth: the voluntary way of the free market and the coercive means of the state.

With an interventionist state like ours, dedicated to extracting our money for itself and favored interest groups, whose officials revel in dominating others, no one will admit openly what he is about. The talk will be of the public interest, the common good, the national security. But the real issues will always be cash and control.

Even in the early 19th century, John C. Calhoun described the United States as divided between the tax payers and tax eaters. And today, we can use that same analysis. Ludwig von Mises called the battle between these two artificially created groups a caste conflict, in contradistinction to Karl Marxs class conflict.

There can be no natural class conflict in society, since the free market harmonizes all economic interests. But in an interventionist system, there must be a struggle between the caste that lives off the government and the rest of us.

To keep us from struggling too much, the governmentfrom our earliest daystrains us to be good little citizens: to salute and say Yes, sir! when ordered to pay redistributionist taxes, instructed how to run our businesses, told how to lead our personal lives, or drafted for foreign wars.

And part of the training is the painstakingly inculcated acceptance of the government as we.

Are we spending too much on the space shuttle? someone asked me recently. But we are not spending anything. The U.S. government is.

The government is separate from us, and almost always opposed to our interests. We do not have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We have a government to the people. And one important tool in keeping it going is the lie.