Ludwig von Mises Quote

"Those who call themselves 'liberals' today are asking for policies which are precisely the opposite of those policies which the liberals of the nineteenth century advocated in their liberal programs. The so-called liberals of today have the very popular idea that freedom of speech, of thought, of the press, freedom of religion, freedom from imprisonment without trial -- that all these freedoms can be preserved in the absence of what is called economic freedom. They do not realize that, in a system where there is no market, where the government directs everything, all those other freedoms are illusory, even if they are made into laws and written up in constitutions."

by:	Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) Economist and social philosopher
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Categories:	Constitution, Control, Economics, Free Market, Free Thought, Government, Hypocrisy, Justice, Liberalism, Press, Speech, Tyranny
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-- solos42, troy
accurate and to the point.  -- Mike, Norwalk      3
Spoken by a man who escaped nazi germany; a man who has seen both sides of the coin, liberty and tyranny, socialism and capitalism. As you can see, he chose chose liberty and capitalism. As he points out, the two go hand in hand. We cannot have one without the other, without liberty there is no capitalism, without capitalism there is no liberty.  -- Publius      8
Mises again leaves me wishing for six stars.  -- Justin, Elkland      3
Mises is spot on. The Liberal philosophjy has been thoroughly hijacked by Communists and One Worlder's.  -- J Carlton, Calgary      2
Economic Freedom? Sorry, doesn't seem to be in the Constitution but if he is talking about government giving big business it's head--I say look at the results. That's exactly what happened when Congress was run by Republicans then backed by a Republican president for almost 6 years. Government serves the purpose of "watchdog" on Corporation excesses, banking excesses and individual excesses. It's called making laws. Now if he's talking about all the interference in government by the Big Boys. Yeah, that needs to end and it needs to end soon because it's their interference in the decision making of Congress and the Supreme Court that is endangering every freedom we think we have. In the end, Law is supposed to protect freedom. As far as I can see Law only serves to protect those who think they are entitled to freedom....the rest of us can just start planning the next revolution!  -- Joy, Papillion, NE      6
-- Drew, pittsburgh,pa
Mises was exactly right and Joy ,your reply is nonsense, or worse.  -- jim k, Austin,Tx      4
Oh Joy...you and you're pro-statist blame game are so very obvious and boring. You're a communist, we get it. How much do they pay you to shill for statism? Or is it just part of your welfare package?  -- J Carlton, Calgary      5
Actually Joy, I may have misjudged you. Apologies on this occasion. I'll hold my tongue until you go off on a more statist rant as you do from time to time.  -- J Carlton, Calgary
Sorry, Joy, but you have got it wrong.You say "economic freedom is not in the Constitution," but you forgot or choose to ignore the fact that the Bill of Rights assures us of Economic Freedom in the 9th and 10th amendments. The 9th. "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall NOT be construed to DENY or disparage Others Retained by the People." (emphasis mine) The 10th. "The powers NOT delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are RESERVED to the states, OR TO THE PEOPLE." (again, the emphasis is mine) Do your homework and make sure you get a copy of the Constitution. You would do well to read the book by W. Cleon Skousen, The "Five Thousand Year Leap, 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World." In my opinion the two amendments sited are probably the most powerful in the Bill of Rights that assure our liberty to live our lives as we choose.  -- Carol, Georgia      4
The aim of classic liberalism was to bring the Constitution into full practice for ALL the people. The rights of women and blacks were still yet to be protected even though the Constitution placed no limit to their rights than any other white man. America has yet to truly reach the ideal put forth in the Constitution, but it is because We the People do not insist upon it. Freedom means responsibility, and for those that prefer to have a lord and master, every attempt has been made to make the government our savior in every way. The corrupt men in government today play upon the desires of those that do not want to be masters of their own lives, for the rulers desire to be masters of others and to profit from the labors and properties of those that serve them. Joy's simpleton argument of 'rich vs.poor' is the same as the Bolshevik Revolution, so beware, my friend, because while you may successfully topple the rich, you may find yourself duped just like the Russian and German people with a centralized totalitarian government on a road to self-destruction. Liberals today merely propose more ways to rig the game in order to make it fair -- we have had nearly a hundred years of that and look where it has gotten us. It is because we have allowed the government to rig the game that the 'Big Boys' have had such a long run in this country. Think, Joy, do not merely let yourself be duped into enslaving others in order to acquire their property. By the way, I am NOT rich, so how come all these statist polices keep affecting me when they are supposed to take down the greedy and raise up the poor? Because it is a LIE, that is why! And some of us have had enough.  -- E Archer, NYC      2
My dear friend, It is not a lie. Social Security has raised up the elderly from abject poverty and kept them that way. They are in fact, now the only age group exempt from poverty. And while the government has put laws into place to support other programs, they are only as successful as those who run OUR government allow them to be. If the rich weren't so busy trying to get what they believe they and they alone are entitled to, the government (which is us) would not have to use our tax dollars in the very valuable safety-nets that exist. Greed tells people that without "economic freedom",, the rest are illusory. WHO has economic freedom? I sure don't. My husband still works and for the moment we have choices but in a few years those economic freedoms we have now will fade as will all the other so called freedoms. Do you know which countries are prospering in this WW downturn? The ones who thrive on socialistic programs. Their industries thrive, their citizens have little or no unemployment with huge benefits. And their health care has the best outcomes in the world---along with their education systems. WE can no longer claim to be #1 in the world and that is because we have forgotten that if even one of us is without "economic freedom", then none of us can thrive and succeed. Whether you believe it or not...whether you like it or not, we are all dependent on each other. And while I dream of a revolution that will put our "nobility" in it's place, I am smart enough to know that they will never let that happen! As a matter of fact the founders made sure to make it unConstitutional. The South tried it and found out that they could not make a legitimate case! No one in this country is any match for our military might---the nobility made sure of that too!  -- Joy, Papillion, NE      3
Joy , you say your husband works so he must have a job. He is very fortunate to have one with Obama, Pelosi and Reid running things so tell him to hang on to it.  -- jim k, Austin,Tx
von Mises is a shill for the Establishment - the parasitic Zionist Crimocracy that is hell bent on destroying the world - not just the US. von Mises was born an Austrian Jewish Noble. He did NOT escape Nazi Germany! He emigrated from Switzerland! What von Mises and the Alabama Austrians advocate is PRIVATE CONTROL of MONEY and BANKING - which is EXACTLY what we have now in the US and have had for most of our history. The "big lie" trick of the FED is that until recently, they have been able to blame the government for their actions. Thanks mainly to the Internet and those like Eustace Mullens, that lie is now well uncovered and nearly everyone with a pulse knows that the "Federal" "Reserve" is no more federal than Federal Express.  -- Jimi Bigbear, New Fredonia      4
The VERY big problem with LVM is that his world is black and white, and as we know that is not reality.  -- RBESRQ      1
Good Joy - I think your points fall on death ears with this lot, with the exception of Jimi and yourself.  -- RBESRQ      2
Jimi, we need you to comment more often...  -- RBESRQ      1
I am reminded that technology and circumstance may change, but human beings do not. LVM and Hayek said so many things 50 years ago that are spot on. The issues today are no different than they were 50, 100, 200, or 1000 years ago. Our founding fathers gave us something unique. I pray tha we will have the wisdom and courage to defend, protect, and preserve it.  -- dgl, Eagan, MN      2
Facts without theory are trivia, opinions without facts are Bullshit. a well known quote. Albert Ludwig. awludwig@shaw.ca  -- Albert Ludwig, Calgary , Alberta      1
Joy, though you make some good factual points, your greater premise and many of your conclusions are based on government / media mis-direction, mis-representations and lies. China for one. China is a slave state with socialism being the base to its belief systems and centralized control. It allows just enough free market to prosper its serfs and slaves. Amerika doesn't permit that level of free market, thus the move by entrepreneurs and the otherwise depressed economy. Fascism (corporatism) is the main driving force in Amerika with its god (the statist theocracy) being in toto aloof from We The People (We are not the government - the statist theocracy infesting this land daily proves that it is not of We The People by continuing to enforce compelled compliance, license, victimless crimes, larceny on a grandiose scale way beyond anything / anywhere in history and, making declarations the government has inherent rights in and of itself - Your vote is vote for your jail keepers, not for a representative(s)) As Archer so eloquently put it, its not rich vs. poor. And, your perceptions of social security are naive, uninformed, overly narrow, and do not take in the entire personal / social destructiveness of said ponzi scheme.  -- Mike, Norwalk      4
Jimi, as you have left the same comment 3 times for the von Mises quotes, I am a bit baffled as to how you would lump von Mises in with the Keynesians? What specifically are you accusing von Mises of? Joy, Social Security IS a LIE -- the government did not save one dollar for your retirement -- they completely spent every dollar collected for Social Security, and now that the baby boomers are collecting instead of paying, the whole thing is collapsing. Your argument could be used to defend any number of Ponzi schemes in which the first recipients get paid while the rest get stuck holding the bag. It just so happens that the game is fixed just long enough for those that implemented it to be dead and buried while the rest of us are stuck with the bill. It is a LIE. Can you be prosperous if you are completely in debt and simply borrow more to make the minimum payment on your credit card? How long can that go on? Do your debts demand 'forgiveness' that the rest of us must pay? Or should you be allowed to borrow endlessly on your children's backs because you are a willing slave to debt? The New Deal was a Raw Deal, and with it came many lofty promises that have since been reneged upon. With the New Deal, Americans lost ALL THEIR REAL MONEY, it was confiscated for 'inflatable-debt-as-money' such that no matter how prosperous you were, you acquired nothing but debt for your labors and property. By creating a society fuelled by debt and false promises, $1 in 1945 bought what $28 buys today. This is not due to greed by the 'capitalists' but by 'fascists' creating currency faster than the goods and services it is supposed to represent and then 'loaning' it to us at interest!. Ask any banker/trader, it is better to have mortgaged everything and owe a million dollars than to have a million dollars cash because in a few years, your savings will be worth less, and your debt will also be worth less. Why do you think the entire economic system is based on debt? Why should it require a lifetime of payments to own a house? You have been duped by the false promise of getting something for nothing. As long as someone somewhere can create money out of nothing with nothing more than a 'promise' that will not be honored, we will become owned by them. You are misidentifying the cause of your oppression -- this is understandable because you have been lied to, over and over.  -- E Archer, NYC      4
Thank you Archer, yes the dishonest money system is at the heart of our enslavement a system based on debt can never be free of debt, the rest is fallout and windowdressing from that fact as the international purveyors of the system dupe the ignorant and use them as pawns to maintain the status quo, squabbling for scraps off of their table with the illusionary promise of the Utopian paradise of socialism gleaming in their eyes, at that time all will be fair, that's what the peasants in Russia thought after the revolution and before the terrible reality became obvious. I wonder why is that, are they reading too much Howard Zinn and Saul Alinsky? Many of them talk about the founding fathers but have they read the books that the founding fathers read that enlightened them to this wisdom they attribute to them? I think not, else why would they hold opinions so diametrically opposite to that of the founding fathers understanding of human nature and natural law. Someone suggested that they read the book by Cleon Skelton "The 5000 Year Leap" I think that is a good starting place along with his other book "The Making of America" but as they say you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.  -- Mike, Pleasant Hill      2
James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, elaborated upon this limitation in a letter to James Robertson: "With respect to the two words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators. If the words obtained so readily a place in the "Articles of Confederation," and received so little notice in their admission into the present Constitution, and retained for so long a time a silent place in both, the fairest explanation is, that the words, in the alternative of meaning nothing or meaning everything, had the former meaning taken for granted." (Up until the time that the politicians discovered they could bribe the people with their own money and enslave them with dependency, enter Social Security.)  -- Mike, Pleasant Hill      2
-- Mary, MI
The ancient law of economic Liberty, the Declaration of Independence states clearly we are endowed !  Hidden within the English language based on ancient text one will find the foundational sound doctrines of Liberty and Freedom. Chophshiy liberty, economic liberty, freedom from bondage and tax at your pleasure, without care, Eleutheria Liberty, physical liberty, manumission from slavery, a freed man. Apeleutheros Liberty, spiritual liberty, access to the presence of God a freed man. 3 key liberties upon which the Republic rest. The yoke of bondage being removed. The children being made free from oppression. We are a nation under siege now for many, many years. The chains must be removed to right our Ship of Liberty. If the children are made and set at liberty, obviously the welfare, a welfaring individual, the nation is to guard their said Liberties by insuring the yoke of bondage be placed not again upon them. With out economic liberty there is no political freedom.   -- Ronw13, ID      1
"Welfare" Yshuwah, ( the general welfare " an act of deliverance from servitude or enemies. Salvation for the people in the temporal realm. To deliver one from their oppressors !  -- Ronw13, ID

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