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.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Progressivism = Totalitarian Socialism

Progressives will chastise me for making such a politically incorrect statement. "You're name-calling," they'll say. "You're inflaming passions. You're lying! Absurd! Nothing could be further from the truth!"

Really?
Many advocates of interventionism are bewildered when one tells them that in recommending interventionism they themselves are fostering anti-democratic and dictatorial tendencies and the establishment of totalitarian socialism. They protest that they are sincere believers and opposed to tyranny and socialism. What they aim at is only the improvement of the conditions of the poor. They say that they are driven by considerations of social justice, and favour a fairer distribution of income precisely because they are intent upon preserving capitalism and its political corollary or superstructure, viz., democratic government.

What these people fail to realize is that the various measures they suggest are not capable of bringing about the beneficial results aimed at. On the contrary they produce a state of affairs which from the point of view of their advocates is worse than the previous state which they were designed to alter. If the government, faced with this failure of its first intervention, is not prepared to undo its interference with the market and to return to a free economy, it must add to its first measure more and more regulations and restrictions. Proceeding step by step on this way it finally reaches a point in which all economic freedom of individuals has disappeared. Then socialism of the German pattern, the Zwangswirtschaft of the Nazis, emerges.
Ludwig von Mises, Planned Chaos, 1947
Let's review this week in the news and see what our little, progressive tyrants were working on:

Obama announces new housing refinance plan
Our Maximum Leader was hard at work devising a plan which forces us to pay for our neighbor's mortgage. I can see that. Why can't you?

Obama To Homeowners: "Programs We Put Forward Haven't Worked At The Scale We Hoped"
By the way, this week's plan wasn't Maximum Leader's first attempt and it won't be his last. As Mises writes: "If the government, faced with this failure of its first intervention, is not prepared to undo its interference with the market and to return to a free economy, it must add to its first measure more and more regulations and restrictions."

Obama: I Want An Economy "Where We're Making Stuff And Selling Stuff And Moving It Around"
Notice the operative words in this tyrannical headline are: "I want." Totalitarian socialists know what is best for you and, by God, Maximum Leader is going to see you get it! Good thing totalitarian socialists are benevolent and wise!

Treasury ups auto bailout loss estimate
Oops. Maybe not that wise, just benevolent. We must give credit where credit is due. Maximum Leader did save some jobs which we all realize is Job Number One of Maximum Leaders. It's just a coincidence that the jobs saved were those of UAW union thugs who make a hundred grand a year and regularly vote for Maximum Leader.  

Ener1, Parent of Obama-Backed Green Company, Files for Bankruptcy
Double oops! What happens when one of Maximum Leader's favorite crony businesses stops "making stuff and selling stuff and moving it around?" You the taxpayer are strong-armed into picking up the tab, that's what!

Drip, Drip, Drip: Yet Another Green Energy Stimulus Recipient Hits the Skids (the third this week!)
Triple oops! If this keeps up the stupid among us may finally realize that this totalitarian socialist is neither benevolent nor wise... ...Naw. Maximum Leader has a blank check from the stupid to fight man-made global warming because it's surely going to be our Waterloo, right?

Signs Of Strengthening Global Cooling
Wrong. What's a Maximum Leader to do in the face of such earthly confusion?

ObamaCare’s latest assault on freedom
Go on to bigger and better things. Like forcing Catholics to do his bidding (offering contraceptive and abortion services) regardless of their personal and individual beliefs. Or how about changing the subject...

Sugar Should Be Regulated As Toxin, Researchers Say
How long before Mrs. Maximum Leader is raiding your pantry? Can't happen, you say!

Sugar Tariffs Cost Americans $3.86 Billion in 2011
You're probably right. Banning sugar while at the same time subsidizing its domestic production would even be too nutso for the little sub-Maximum Leaders in Congress, right? There IS one thing consistent in all this craziness: You, the American taxpayer, are being forced to foot the bill!

Bernanke urges caution in overly rapid deficit cutting
Even though Maximum Leader is omniscient and omnipotent, he can't be expected to rule all by himself. He has little mini-totalitarian socialist bureaucrats to help him out. Bernanke is the dictatorial elf in charge of our money. His chief responsibility is making sure that it doesn't lose its value. How much has the price of bread and milk gone up the last few years? ...Really? Gee, maybe that's because for the last few years we've engaged in "overly rapid deficit cutting." Come on, folks. Use your head!

The Great Divorce
We have smart intellectuals in this country to help us do just that: use our head! In this inspired piece of work, David Brooks, the guru savant at the NY Times, gushes about a new book by Charles Murray: "Coming Apart." You remember Charles Murray? The author of "The Bell Curve?" The guy who thinks Jews are more prosperous than blacks because they're naturally smarter?


Brooks says he'll be "shocked if there’s another book that so compellingly describes the most important trends in American society... ...Murray’s basic argument is not new, that America is dividing into a two-caste society."

Brilliant! No wonder Maximum Leader relies on the likes of David Brooks to educate us stupid masses. In classic, totalitarian socialist fashion Brooks puts his finger on what Maximum Leader needs to do next in our best interests: "force" the two castes to be friends:

[W]e need a National Service Program," Brooks writes. "We need a program that would force members of the upper tribe and the lower tribe to live together, if only for a few years. We need a program in which people from both tribes work together to spread out the values, practices and institutions that lead to achievement.If we could jam the tribes together, we’d have a better elite and a better mass.

You see, you stupid numbskulls in flyover country, what this country needs more than anything else is "better" tribes. The way to accomplish this is at gunpoint. Maximum Leader should force all us tribal natives -- those from Yale as well as those from the ghetto -- to spend a few years making nice together on the same playground. Brooks probably wouldn't go so far as to call these playgrounds re-education camps, but what the hell? If it works, who cares what they're called?

So what do you think, boys and girls? Is equating Progressivism with Totalitarian Socialism really jumping the shark or what?

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