The Paternalistic and Plundering Welfare State

November 16, 2009 10:26 AM by Richard Ebeling

Since we are living through one of the most historic increases in the interventionist-welfare state in the last hundred years, we need to remind ourselves of the dangers from this massive expansion in the political plunder machine.

The modern state may use the illusionary rhetoric of "social justice," but the reality of political paternalism is a further loss of our individual liberty, a huge growth in political coercive power, a weakening of the independence and charactor of free men, and a massive expansion of government debt, taxes and likely inflation that threatens to stiffle the prosperity of Americans for decades to come.

I discuss some of the factors and political forces that are propelling us in this direction in a new article of mine on, "The Menace and Immorality of the Welfare State."

It is taking us further down a new road to serfdom, in which a political and special interest elite plan and control our lives, while expecting us to be their serfs producing the wealth they want to steal.

Richard Ebeling

Economic Elixirs and Quack Economic "Doctors"

November 10, 2009 12:44 PM by Richard Ebeling

Around the beginning of the 20th century British economist, Alfred Marshall," warned,

Students of social science must fear popular approval; evil is with them when all men speak well of them. If there is any set of opinions by the advocacy of which a newspaper can increase its sales, then the student . . . is bound to dwell on the limitations and defects and errors, if any, in that set of opinions; and never to advocate them unconditionally even in an ad hoc discussion. It is almost impossible for a student to be a true patriot and have the reputation of being one at the same time.

Unfortunately, a whole host of economists who crave popular approval and political influence have been propounding a whole series of quack medicines to "heal" the economy, with the promise of curing the recession through interventionist and monetary "elixirs."

There is a vast number of political absurdities being perpetrated on the American people, right now. In a new piece of mine on, "Quick Fixes and Economic Fallacies," I focus on the dangers from "government-business partnerships" and "fair trade vs. free trade," and the misguided idea of "lower interest rates and easy money for economic recovery."

Our task is to drive out the economic charlatans from the temple of economic policy, and do everything in our power to bring about a rebirth in the ideas of laissez-faire capitalism and the non-coercive society.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Continuing Threats to Liberty

November 4, 2009 10:01 AM by Richard Ebeling

Next Monday, November 9th, marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. For 28 years, from 1961 to 1989, it stood as a symbol of the tyranny of the totalitarian state under which the individual was viewed as the property of the state, with no right to leave the "workers' paradise" without the permission of that state. And if you tried, you ran the risk of being killed by the armed guards of the East German communist government.

In a new piece that I've written, "The Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Tyranny of the State," I explain the history and human tragedy of the Berlin Wall, in terms of the dozens of people who lost their lives trying to escape to freedom over the Wall.

We need to emphasize the threat that Big Government represents to all our freedom -- including the right of freedom of movement -- and which should be remembered on this 20-year celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Unfortunately, the Collectivist mentality did not end with either the fall of the Berlin Wall or the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union. It remains alive and well in America and around the world, with its insistance that the individual lives for and is to be sacrificed to "interests" of the state.

We still have our work cut out for us, to demolish the numerous political "walls" with which the government continues to enslave us through its police power in the growing interventionist-welfare state and the threatening economic fascist order.

Richard Ebeling