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 ...
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.”
bump
The Pandora's box of the proverbial blank check has been unleased. When the Piper is paid, it will be ugly.
Ping for later.
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.
Succinct and well stated.
"The Goose, She is Died"!
That's the money quote.
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...
Nice seccinct summary of where we are and where we are headed...
Nice seccinct summary of where we are and where we are headed...
Nice succinct summary of where we are and where we are headed...
Nice succinct summary of where we are and where we are headed...
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)
The Pied Piper of Pandora; mixed metaphors, yet alliterative.
-——before we get out of the tunnel, and into the bright light on the far end, theres 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.
btrl
econ bump for later........
sfl
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.
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