In 1918, the Soviet Union became the first country to promise universal “cradle-to-grave” healthcare, writes Yuri N. Maltsev. This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Harold Fritsche.
Instead of solving the initial problem, the intervention creates two or three further problems, which the government feels it must intervene to heal, writes Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995). This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Harold
This essay originally appeared in the Review of Austrian Economics 7, No. 2 (1994), pp. 75–90, as “The Consumption Tax: A Critique”. Narrated by Harold Fritsche . Music by Kevin MacLeod
Editor’s Note: Although negotiations concerning the “fiscal cliff” seem to be at an impasse, the one thing both Democrats and Republicans agree on is their desire to close tax loopholes. That is bad news for the economy, because as Ludwig von Mises said, “Capitalism breathes through those loopholes.” Closing loopholes to “broaden the tax base” has
[An army of] a hundred thousand men, costing the taxpayers a hundred million of money, live and bring to the purveyors as much as a hundred million can supply. That is which is seen. But, a hundred million taken from the pockets of the taxpayers, ceases to maintain these taxpayers and their purveyors as far as a hundred million reaches. This is
[ Income Tax: Root of All Evil (1954)] To be sure, the original Populists, and the aping Democrats and Republicans, to say nothing of the conscious Socialists, little thought that their income-tax gadget would ever be used to “soak the poor.” It was an instrument, they thought, that could lend itself to no other purpose than to expropriate
The US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said on August 22, 2012, that scheduled tax increases and spending cuts in 2013 would reverse the current modest economic recovery. The CBO and other experts are of the view that large government spending cuts and tax hikes will cause severe economic slump. Experts hold that without action by Congress to
“The theory involves a conceptual conflation of democracy and liberty (freedom) that can only be called scandalous, especially coming from self-proclaimed libertarians. The foundation and cornerstone of liberty is the institution of private property; and private—exclusive—property is logically incompatible with democracy—majority rule. Democracy
[Included in The Bastiat Collection (2011), this article appeared in Economic Sophisms (1845).] We have here, again, the same fallacy. We demand that foreign products should be taxed to neutralize the effect of the taxes that weigh upon our national products. The object, then, still is to equalize the conditions of production. We have only a
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.