Comments (12)

• Roger Rickards

  Hello, I have subscribed to the Mises website for about a year.
  The thinking, for the most part, as I percieve it by most writers; reminds me of the works of Charles Dickens. The most wealthy have grown to the smallest percentage of the population in 70 years or more.
  God or someone help us before the revolt begins. Gold is nearly at $700.00 and likely headed much higher.
  The USA has lost its prestige around the world and the USD$ will soon become a flurry of paper with little value. Most people do not grasp the concept that gold is a currency, rather than a commodity.
  Regards,
  Roger Rickards

  Published: February 23, 2007 11:36 PM

• David C

  Generally speaking, the rich don't get rich robbing banks, they don't get rich raping and pillaging the village. No! they got rich because we choose to buy stuff they make, we choice to use services they offer, we chose them over someone else to do business with. Now to turn around and say the rich owe us bullshit. What ever happened to "do not covet thy neighbor's goods", somehow I don't think that was written to help the rich exploit the poor.

  Unfortunately though, in a fiat system, the rich can also get rich by pushing debt and inflation on the poor while taking away their investment power. When Goldman Sachs executives make record profit this year by being first in line for the mega Fed fiat machine while I suffer under limited opportunities and inflation (but always with ez credit). You had better believe that I am angry, and fed up with it.

  Published: February 24, 2007 10:45 AM

• averros

  I'd say the problem is not that the rich are getting richer, but that the poor are falling behind - because they're made stupid by the public education and made lazy by the socialist hand-outs.

  Published: February 24, 2007 8:50 PM

• adi

  Famous theoretician of probability Nassim Nicholas Taleb says that people attribute much of what is random to their own skill. You could easily dismiss "lazy, stupid = poor" theory. Human mind is eager to look for orderly shapes and causal connections.

  Averros seems to saying like "For all p in the set P is true x", but by making observation someone could find counter-example "there exists p belonging to P, for which x is not true".

  But Sumner is pointing to important facts. How can someone attribute to others responsibilities towards others?

  A social class is solely artificial construction of human mind even if it contains some explanatory value. But it's great error to make this centerpiece of ones theory of political economy or determinant of development of society.

  Published: February 25, 2007 2:11 AM

• Daniel M. Ryan

  The usual rule of thumb used to identify a social class, adi, is whether or not it constitutes a kind of subculture. A subculture is made up of people who are mutually loyal and tend to socialize with each other almost exclusively, except for polite interactions with outsiders.

  I venture that a social class is a kind of default category for subcultures not easy to identify through more explicit means. If a subculture is identified without any ethnic criterion, place-of-residence criterion or explict mutual-interest criterion, then it is earmarked as a social class.

  Published: February 25, 2007 1:43 PM

• Mathias Fett

  Sumner gave a great deal of thought and logical reasoning to his writings. The corruption of Government medelling in the lives of citizens of his time is still with us today only more so. The taking of Labor and its products without the consent of the lborer is Theft no matter how convoluted the methods used.
  Sumner correctly saw that it was the Morality that society, for the most part operates that is at fault, that morality eventually turns all in order to survive, into paracites. He did not mention it was the morality of Self Sacrifice and Altrism pushed in all public and most private schools that makes this possible.

  Published: February 26, 2007 10:26 PM

• JIMB

  Mathias - Altruism and Self Sacrifice are the moral tenets of the guys in charge?

  Published: March 3, 2007 7:36 AM

• Mathias Fett

  JIMB,
  It's not possible to fully look into another's soul.
  However when Self Sacrifice is asked for by whomever,ask yourself who are the gainers and who are the losers in this transaction?
  To Sacrifice is to lose a greater value for a lesser one or no value. If that is not the case then it's not a sacrifice.
  P.S. Politicians Like to use the term "Sacrifice" what do they want?

  Published: March 4, 2007 6:16 PM

• JIMB

  Mathias - In other words, altruism and self-sacrifice ** aren't ** the problem: the problem is the forced taking of a person's property using the method of secret ballot and the involuntary coercion keeping people in that system.

  Published: March 4, 2007 8:17 PM

• Mathias Fett

  JIMB
  Obviously you are interested in this important subject. May I refer you to a book THE VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS by Ayn Rand...your questions will be answered much more so than could be here.
  Best wishes in your quest to understand.

  Published: March 5, 2007 9:06 AM

• David Spellman

  It took me a long time to finish this article reading a section a day. But it is a brilliant articulation of the evils of social engineering. Democracy doesn't have to be theft, but it devolves to it over time. Mind your own business is advice for the ages. Too bad most people buy into minding other people's business for their own profit.

  Published: March 5, 2007 3:01 PM

• Kevin B

  Excellent point, David.

  "Mind your own business is advice for the ages. Too bad most people buy into minding other people's business for their own profit."

  I think it is important for us to consider when trying to persuade others for less government, that the idea is a threat not only to their narrow assumptions of government, but also to their desire (subconscious or otherwise) to meddle. Even if it were proved to them beyond a shadow of a doubt that in all other ways their lives would be improved, what value do these people place on their meddling privileges?

  Published: March 5, 2007 3:38 PM