Book description
OMNIPOTENT GOVERNMENT- The Rise of the Total State and Total War BY
Ludwig von Mises. Preface: IN dealing with the problems of social and
economic policies, the social sciences consider only one question
whether the measures suggested are really suited to bringing about the
effects sought by their authors, or whether they result in a state of
affairs which from the viewpoint of their supporters is even more
undesirable than the previous state which it was in tended to alter. The
economist does not substitute his own judg ment about the desirability
of ultimate ends for that of his fellow citizens. He merely asks whether
the ends sought by nations, gov ernments, political parties, and
pressure groups can indeed be at tained by the methods actually chosen
for their realization. It is, to be sure, a thankless task. Most people
are intolerant of any criticism of their social and economic tenets.
They do not understand that the objections raised refer only to
unsuitable methods and do not dispute the ultimate ends of their
efforts. They are not prepared to admit the possibility that they might
attain their ends more easily by following the economists advice than by
disregarding it. They call an enemy of their nation, race, or group
anyone who ventures to criticize their cherished policies. This stubborn
dogmatism is pernicious and one of the root causes of the present state
of world affairs. An economist who as serts that minimum wage rates are
not the appropriate means of raising the wage earners standard of living
is neither a labor baiter nor an enemy of the workers. On the contrary,
in suggesting more suitable methods for the improvement of the wage
earners material well-being, he contributes as much as he can to a
genuine promotion of their prosperity. To point out the advantages which
everybody derives from the working of capitalism is not tantamount to
defending the vested interests of the capitalists. An economist who
forty or fifty years ago advocated the preservation of the system of
private property and free enterprise did not fight for the selfish class
interests of the then rich. He wanted a free hand left to those unknown
among his penniless contemporaries who had the ingenuity to develop all
those new industries which today render the life of the common man more
pleasant. Many pioneers of these industrial changes, it is true, became
rich. But they acquired their wealth by supplying the public with motor
cars, airplanes, radio sets, refrigerators, moving and talking pictures,
and a variety of less spectacular but iv Omnipotent Government no less
useful innovations. These new products were certainly not an achievement
of offices and bureaucrats. Not a single technical improvement can be
credited to the Soviets. The best that the Russians have achieved was to
copy some of the improvements of the capitalists whom they continue to
disparage. Mankind has not reached the stage of ultimate technological
perfection. There is ample room for further progress and for further
improvement of the standards of living. The creative and inventive
spirit subsists notwithstanding all assertions to the contrary. But it
flourishes only where there is economic freedom. Neither is an economist
who demonstrates that a nation let us call it Thule hurts its own
essential interests in its conduct of foreign-trade policies and in its
dealing with domestic minority groups, a foe of Thule and its people...
