Saturday, October 08, 2011

Occupy Wall Street: Do as I say but NOT as I do

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hat tip Prof Mark Perry

The policy of democracies is suicidal. Turbulent mobs demand acts which are contrary to society’s and their own best interests. They return to Parliament corrupt demagogues, adventurers, and quacks who praise patent medicines and idiotic remedies. Democracy has resulted in an upheaval of the domestic barbarians against reason, sound policies, and civilization. The masses have firmly established the dictators in many European countries. They may succeed very soon in America too. The great experiment of liberalism and democracy has proved to be self-liquidating. It has brought about the worst of all tyrannies.

This pertinent quote from the great Ludwig von Mises in Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War [1944] (hat tip Prof Don Boudreaux)

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