About This Blog

Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) was the greatest economist of my time. His greatest works can be accessed here at no charge.

Mises believed that property, freedom and peace are and should be the hallmarks of a satisfying and prosperous society. I agree. Mises proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the prospect for general and individual prosperity is maximized, indeed, is only possible, if the principle of private property reigns supreme. What's yours is yours. What's mine is mine. When the line between yours and mine is smudged, the door to conflict opens. Without freedom (individual liberty of action) the principle of private property is neutered and the free market, which is the child of property and freedom and the mother of prosperity and satisfaction, cannot exist. Peace is the goal of a prosperous and satisfying society of free individuals, not peace which is purchased by submission to the enemies of property and freedom, but peace which results from the unyielding defense of these principles against all who challenge them.

In this blog I measure American society against the metrics of property, freedom and peace.

Saturday, June 29, 2024

Vote For ANYONE Who Will Shrink Leviathan


Over the years we the people have created a powerful and dangerous beast of gigantic proportions in Washington, DC. This beast has become a threat to the very principles upon which this country was founded, namely Property, Freedom and Peace. 

We the people attempt to control this beast by building a cage around it, by using the puny tools of the Judiciary branch against the overgrown powers and resources of the combined Executive and Legislative branches. Small judicial victories against the Executive/Legislative beast are hard to come by and may soon be impossible altogether when activist justices who legislate from the bench dominate the Supreme Court. 

The sad part is we the people have enabled all of this by our willingness to sell our votes to politicians who promise to reward us with benefits funded by taxes extorted from our neighbors.

Assuming voting still matters, it's time we cast our votes for ANYONE on the ballot who promises to cut the Washington, DC beast down to size, who promises to return Leviathan's ill-gotten power and resources to their rightful owners: We the People.

Yes, I know promises can be broken. But a promise to downsize the federal Leviathan is better than a promise to keep spending more and more and more.... 

Sadly, Javier Milei, the libertarian President of Argentina, is not running for President of the United States. However, both Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have promised to drain the Washington, DC swamp, not with the fervor shown above by Milei, but a promise is a promise. 

Both Trump and Kennedy are electable if enough of us decide enough is enough. Pick one. Vote for him. And once your Milei wannabe gets to Washington, hold his feet to the fire and demand he keep his promise.

Our property, freedom and peace -- our lives -- depend upon it. 

Saturday, June 8, 2024

Your Vote and Other People's Money

This election season reminds me of the Margaret Thatcher quote: "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

Our society has a systematic problem. No amount of governmental tweaking can solve the problem of running out of other people's money. Period.

The only systematic solution is for society to be organized strictly on the basis of individual property rights, i.e., Thou shalt not steal. In such a society, the only money you eventually run out of is your own. And if you fail to produce enough and save enough so you don't run out of your own money when your life depends on it, well tough bananas. What kind of message would this send to future child-producers?

So the real question with regard to these United States in the here and now is: Will American voters suddenly decide to jump off their socialist merry-go-round and vote for absolute individual property rights?

No way in hell. Not this election season. It's going to take a catastrophic collapse of our socialist society to get the attention of the American voter. Hopefully, those who survive the collapse will learn the right lesson.