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Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises Quotes

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Famous Ludwig von Mises Quotes

“The financial history of the last century shows a steady increase in the amount of public indebtedness. Nobody believes that the states will eternally drag the burden of these interest payments. It is obvious that sooner or later all these debts will be liquidated in some way or other, but certainly not by payment of interest and principal according to the terms of the contract.”

WayBelieveStatesShowsLastsTermInterestCenturyAmountIncreaseFinancialObviousBurdenDebtContractsSteadyDragSooner Or LaterPrincipalPaymentIndebtedness
Book:Human Action
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“The state is the only institution entitled to apply coercion and compulsion and to inflict harm upon individuals. This tremendous power cannot be abandoned to the discretion of some men, however competent and clever they may deem themselves. It is necessary to restrict its application. This is the task of the laws.”

MenMayStatesLawIndividualTasksInstitutionsHarmCleverApplicationAbandonedEntitledCompulsionCoercionCompetentDiscretion
Book:Bureaucracy
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“The consumers are merciless. They never buy in order to benefit a less efficient producer and to protect him against the consequences of his failure to manage better. They want to be served as well as possible. And the working of the capitalist system forces the entrepreneur to obey the orders issued by the consumers.”

WantWellsOrderForceProtectBenefitsConsequenceEntrepreneurProducersManageConsumersCapitalistEfficient
Book:Bureaucracy: The Economist
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“Suggestion of the Communist Manifesto was 'abolition of all right of inheritance.' Looking backward upon the past history of estate taxes, we have to realize that they more and more have approached the goal set by Marx. Estate taxes of the height they have already attained for the upper brackets are no longer to be qualified as taxes. They are measures of expropriation.”

PastGoalRealizingTaxesHeightCommunistLooking BackEstatesSuggestionsInheritanceQualifiedAbolitionManifestosBracketsCommunist ManifestoEstate Taxes
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“If the present American laws concerning the taxation of the profits of corporations, the incomes of individuals, and inheritances had been introduced about 60 years ago, all those new products whose consumption has raised the standard of living of the 'common man' would either not be produced at all or only in small quantities for the benefit of a minority. The Ford enterprises would not exist if Henry Ford's profits had been taxed away as soon as they came into being.”

IfsMenYearsLawIndividualCommonProductsBenefitsStandardsYears AgoRaisedProfitIncomeCorporationsEnterpriseMinoritiesQuantityConsumptionTaxationInheritanceStandards Of LivingCommon ManNew ProductsAmerican Law
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“Public opinion takes no offense at the endeavors of farmers, workers, clerks, teachers, doctors, ministers, and people from many other callings to earn as much as they can. But it censures the capitalists and entrepreneurs for their greed.”

PeopleOpinionTeacherCallingDoctorsEntrepreneurWorkersGreedMinistersEndeavorFarmersCapitalistOffensePublic OpinionClerksCensure
Book:Planning for freedom, and sixteen other essays and addresses
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“If the present tax rates had been in effect from the beginning of our century, many who are millionaires today would live under more modest circumstances. But all those new branches of industry which supply the masses with articles unheard of before, would operate, if at all, on a much smaller scale, and their products would be beyond the reach of the common man.”

IfsMenWould BeTodayCommonEffectsCenturyProductsIndustryCircumstancesTaxesMassRateScalesBranchesArticlesModestMillionaireCommon ManUnheard
Book:Planning for freedom, and sixteen other essays and addresses
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“The unprecedented success of Keynesianism is due to the fact that it provides an apparent justification for the 'deficit spending' policies of contemporary governments. It is the pseudo-philosophy of those who can think of nothing else than to dissipate the capital accumulated by previous generations.”

ThinkingPhilosophyFactsGovernmentGenerationsPolicySpendingDuesContemporaryJustificationDeficitUnprecedentedPseudoPrevious GenerationsDeficit SpendingKeynesianism
Book:Planning for freedom, and twelve other essays and addresses
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“The truth is that capitalism has not only multiplied population figures, but at the same time, improved the people's standard of living in an unprecedented way. Neither economic thinking nor historical experience suggests that any other social system could be as beneficial to the masses as capitalism. The results speak for themselves. The market economy needs no apologists and propagandists. It can apply to itself the words of Sir Christopher Wren's epitaph in St. Paul's: Si monumentum requires, circumspice.”

PeopleThinkingWayNeedsSpeakSocialResultsEconomyEconomicFiguresTruth IsMassStandardsCapitalismHistoricalPopulationBeneficialUnprecedentedStandards Of LivingEpitaphMarket EconomySocial SystemsPropagandistWrens
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“It is certain that many intellectuals envy the higher income of prosperous businessmen and that these feelings drive them toward socialism. They believe that the authorities of a socialist commonwealth would pay them higher salaries than those that they earn under capitalism.”

BelieveFeelingsCertainPayHigherAuthorityCapitalismEnvyIncomeSocialismSocialistBusinessmanProsperousSalaryCommonwealth
Book:Human action: a treatise on economics
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“Welfare policies never attain those - allegedly beneficial - ends which the government and the self-styled progressives who advocated them wanted to attain, but - on the contrary - bring about a state of affairs which - from the very point of view of the government and its supporters - is even more unsatisfactory than the previous state of affairs they wanted to 'improve.'”

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Book:Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays
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