Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Coming Political Upheaval
The American Thinker ^ | January 03, 2011 | Monty Pelerin

Posted on 01/03/2011 3:33:48 AM PST by Scanian

The late Murray Rothbard, famous Austrian economist and libertarian, published a collection of essays under the title Making Economic Sense. One subsection was entitled "Politics as Economic Violence." That phrase described, in Rothbard's view, politics' contribution to society.

Rothbard's reasoning was simple: Economics is the interaction of people freely making choices while subject to minimal restriction (no theft, coercion, fraud, etc.). Politics is coercion to force outcomes that otherwise would not occur. Thus, politics is violence against economics, or people, because it precludes freedom's running its natural course.

A couple of centuries earlier, Thomas Jefferson expressed the same sentiment:

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."

Rothbard, as was often his way, came up with an incisive way of categorizing government activity. Little that government does is not violence against economics. Virtually every government program involves coercion to achieve an outcome that free individuals otherwise would not choose. Otherwise, there would be no need for the program or legislation.

After decades of violence against economics, the economy hovers on the brink of destruction. There are too many to list, but some of the political fallacies that brought us to this point are the following:

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bankruptcy; coercion; economics; politics
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-23 next last

1 posted on 01/03/2011 3:33:56 AM PST by Scanian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Scanian

Excellent article. If the Republican majority is sincere in checking every regulation to see if it produces jobs, they will have to dismantle the deep layers of sclerotic restrictions in which the federal government has imprisoned this economy. There is no other remedy for “getting the economy moving again.” In the words of Pogo, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”


2 posted on 01/03/2011 4:03:35 AM PST by kittymyrib
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scanian

bump


3 posted on 01/03/2011 4:07:34 AM PST by WashingtonSource
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scanian
Prior to this generation and a half, the basic societal premise was that people, businesses, governments, and whatever were expected to live and operate within their means.

The Pandora's box of the proverbial blank check has been unleased. When the Piper is paid, it will be ugly.

4 posted on 01/03/2011 4:15:04 AM PST by catfish1957 (Hey algore...You'll have to pry the steering wheel of my 317 HP V8 truck from my cold dead hands)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scanian

Ping for later.


5 posted on 01/03/2011 4:15:25 AM PST by EricT. (Can we start hanging them yet?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: catfish1957

since the election, I’ve felt that we could begin to see a little light @ the end of the tunnel, but, before we get out of the tunnel, and into the bright light on the far end, there’s going to be the proverbial freight train with which to deal.


6 posted on 01/03/2011 4:24:42 AM PST by stickywillie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Scanian
Virtually every government program involves coercion to achieve an outcome that free individuals otherwise would not choose. Otherwise, there would be no need for the program or legislation.

Succinct and well stated.

"The Goose, She is Died"!

7 posted on 01/03/2011 4:29:43 AM PST by Aevery_Freeman (Fear God and Government - especially when one tries to become the other!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scanian
FTA:"The 2012 election will be a pivotal event for the Democratic Party. President Obama will be unable to bail out one of his last remaining support bases: the public service unions. The disparate interests that represented the party will be under great strain. Failure to uphold public pensions and wage levels may be the catalyst that ends the modern Democratic Party.

That's the money quote.

8 posted on 01/03/2011 4:30:33 AM PST by Puzzleman ("Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government. " -- Edmund Burke)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scanian

Trouble is, yer replacing them with more of the same...

We the people now...not yer grand daddy’s we thepeople...

*****
“There ain’t no ticks like poly-ticks. Bloodsuckers all.”
-Davy Crockett (unsourced)
Ref
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett

**********
THINK...


9 posted on 01/03/2011 4:35:44 AM PST by gunnyg (WE ARE BEHIND "ENEMY WITHIN" LINES, SURROUNDED, November? Ha! ...So Few Can "grok" It.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scanian

Nice seccinct summary of where we are and where we are headed...


10 posted on 01/03/2011 4:41:06 AM PST by machman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scanian

Nice seccinct summary of where we are and where we are headed...


11 posted on 01/03/2011 4:42:14 AM PST by machman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scanian

Nice succinct summary of where we are and where we are headed...


12 posted on 01/03/2011 4:42:42 AM PST by machman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scanian

Nice succinct summary of where we are and where we are headed...


13 posted on 01/03/2011 4:42:45 AM PST by machman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scanian

If the Congressional majority has any guts, or principles, the next budget would not include any funding for half of the cabinet level departments. (or public broadcasting)


14 posted on 01/03/2011 4:45:33 AM PST by Daveinyork
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: catfish1957

The Pied Piper of Pandora; mixed metaphors, yet alliterative.


15 posted on 01/03/2011 4:46:08 AM PST by pingman (Price is what you pay, value is what you get.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: stickywillie; Scanian

-——before we get out of the tunnel, and into the bright light on the far end, there’s going to be the proverbial freight train ———

My thought as well. The train has a name...... California.

It might be New york or Illinois but it has a name. The failure of one of these states will be the test. Do they fail or do they coerce the union to bail them out.

Which is worse baling them out or going to war with the federal government? That is the question for the folks in the red states.

This was one of the best pieces I have seen in a long while.


16 posted on 01/03/2011 4:59:19 AM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. N.C. D.E. +12 .....( History is a process, not an event ))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

btrl


17 posted on 01/03/2011 5:16:13 AM PST by Clinging Bitterly (We need to limit political office holders to two terms. One in office, and one in prison.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scanian

econ bump for later........


18 posted on 01/03/2011 5:45:55 AM PST by indthkr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scanian

sfl


19 posted on 01/03/2011 5:53:45 AM PST by phockthis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scanian
It is tragic that so many citizens and their descendants will have to pay such a high price.

Perhaps the most shameful and embarrassing aspect of our current generational psychology is our belief in our entitled right to have it all at the expense of those who will follow us.

We bought into the liberal myths and are willing to destroy it all for 'free' healthcare and 'guaranteed' retirements that we don't have to pay for.

20 posted on 01/03/2011 6:47:31 AM PST by GBA (Not on our watch!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-23 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson