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Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises Quotes

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Famous Ludwig von Mises Quotes

“The interventionists do not approach the study of economic matters with scientific disinterestedness. Most of them are driven by an envious resentment against those whose incomes are larger than their own. This bias makes it impossible for them to see things as they really are. For them the main thing is not to improve the conditions of the masses, but to harm the entrepreneurs and capitalists even if this policy victimizes the immense majority of the people.”

PeopleIfsMatterLibertyStudyImpossibleEconomicConditionsPolicyApproachMassEconomicsMajorityEntrepreneurHarmDrivenIncomeCapitalistResentmentImmenseBiasEnvious
Book:Planned Chaos
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“Used to the conditions of a capitalistic environment, the average American takes it for granted that every year business makes something new and better accessible to him. Looking backward upon the years of his own life, he realizes that many implements that were totally unknown in the days of his youth and many others which at that time could be enjoyed only by a small minority are now standard equipment of almost every household.”

YearsPhilosophyPoliticalUsedRealizingEnvironmentConditionsYouthStandardsEconomicsAverageGrantedEnjoyedMinoritiesSomething NewHouseholdLooking BackEquipment
Book:Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays
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“The main propoganda trick of supporters of the allegedly "progressive" policy of government control is to blame capitalism for all that is unsatisfactory in present-day conditions and to extol the blessings of socialism. They have never attempted to prove their fallacious dogmas, all they did was to call their adversaries names and cast suspicion upon their motives. And, unfortunately, the average citizen cannot see through these stratagems. The liars must be afraid of the truth and are therefore driven to suppress its pronouncement.”

PhilosophyGovernmentPoliticalNamesConditionsPolicyCitizensBlessingProveCapitalismEconomicsBlameAverageCastsDrivenTricksSocialismMotiveLiarsProgressiveDogmaSuspicionSupporterAdversariesPresent DayStratagem
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“One day, because they realize for some reason or other that they must stop credit expansion, the banks do stop creating new credit to lend. Then the firms that have expanded cannot get credit to pay for the factors of production necessary for the completion of the investment projects which they have already committed themselves. Because they cannot pay their bills, they sell off their inventories cheap. Then comes the panic, the breakdown. And the depression starts.”

ReasonRealizingPayOne DayProjectsCreatingEconomicsBillsSellsInvestmentCommittedProductionsCreditFactorsFirmPanicExpansionBreakdownCompletionInventoryFactors Of Production
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“Capitalism is essentially a system of mass production for the satisfaction of the needs of the masses. It pours a horn of plenty upon the common man. It has raised the average standard of living to a height never dreamed of in earlier ages. It has made accessible to millions of people enjoyments which a few generations ago were only within the reach of a small élite.”

PeopleMenNeedsMadeAgeCommonMillionsGenerationsMassStandardsCapitalismRaisedAverageSatisfactionProductionsPlentyHeightEnjoymentHornsStandards Of LivingCommon ManMass Production
Book:Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, The
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“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 variety of less spectacular but no less useful innovations. These new products were certainly not an achievement of offices and bureaucrats.”

MovingWealthTalkingRichCarProductsOfficeAchievementCapitalismInnovationRadioVarietyAirplaneSpectacularMotorPioneersBureaucratsRefrigeratorsNew ProductsMotor Cars
Book:Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War
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“The capitalistic social order, therefore, is an economic democracy in the strictest sense of the word. In the last analysis, all decisions are dependent on the will of the people as consumers. Thus, whenever there is a conflict between the consumers' views and those of the business managers, market pressures assure that the views of the consumers win out eventually.”

PeopleLastsOrderWinningSocialDecisionViewsDemocracyEconomicConflictCapitalismPressureManagersConsumersAnalysisDependentSocial Order
Book:On the Manipulation of Money and Credit
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“The capitalist system of production is an economic democracy in which every penny gives a right to vote. The consumers are the sovereign people. The capitalists, the entrepreneurs, and the farmers are the people's mandatories. If they do not obey, if they fail to produce, at the lowest possible cost, what”

PeopleIfsGivingDemocracyFailingEconomicProduceCostCapitalismVoteEntrepreneurProductionsConsumersFarmersCapitalistSovereignLowestPenniesRight To Vote
Book:Bureaucracy
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“We do not assert that the capitalist mode of economic calculation guarantees the absolutely best solution of the allocation of factors of production. Such absolutely perfect solutions of any problem are out of reach of mortal men. What the operation of a market not sabotaged by the interference of compulsion and coercion can bring about is merely the best solution accessible to the human mind under the given state of technological knowledge and the intellectual abilities of the age's shrewdest men.”

MenMindHumansStatesProblemAgeGivenAbilityPerfectEconomicIntellectualSolutionsCapitalismProductionsFactorsMortalsOperationsGuaranteesHuman MindCapitalistTechnologicalCompulsionCoercionCalculationsInterferenceAllocationFactors Of Production
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“All the talk about the so-called unspeakable horror of early capitalism can be refuted by a single statistic: precisely in these years in which British capitalism developed, precisely in the age called the Industrial Revolution in England, in the years from 1760 to 1830, precisely in those years the population of England doubled.”

YearsAgeRevolutionHorrorCapitalismEnglandPopulationBritishUnspeakableIndustrial Revolution
Book:Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow
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“If you give the government the right to determine the consumption of the human body, to determine whether one should smoke or not smoke, drink or not drink, there is no good reply you can give to people who say, More important than the body is the mind and the soul, and man hurts himself much more by reading bad books, by listening to bad music and looking at bad movies. Therefore it is the duty of the government to prevent people from committing those faults. And, as you know, for many hundreds of years governments and authorities velieved that it was their duty.”

PeopleIfsKnowsMenGivingShouldYearsMindHumansImportantBookSoulBodyGovernmentReadingHurtFreedomDutyListeningMoralityDrinkAuthorityFaultsDetermineSmokeConsumptionHuman BodyBad MoviesBad Music
Book:Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow
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“It is not the fault of the entrepreneurs that the consumers,the people, the common man,prefer liquor to Bibles and detective stories to serious books, and that governments prefer guns to butter. The entrepreneur does not make greater profits in selling bad things than in selling good things. His profits are the greater the better he succeeds in providing the consumers with those things they ask for most intensely.”

PeopleMenDoeBookStoriesGovernmentAsksCommonGreaterSeriousSucceedGunEntrepreneurGood ThingsFaultsProfitSellingConsumersBad ThingsProvidingDetectivesLiquorCommon ManDetective Stories
Book:Human action: a treatise on economics
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“People must learn that the accumulation of wealth by the successful conduct of business is the corollary of the improvement of their own standard of living and vice versa. They must realize that bigness in business is not an evil, but both the cause and effect of the fact that they themselves enjoy all those amenities whose enjoyment is called the “American way of life.”

PeopleWayFactsEvilCausesEnjoyRealizingWealthSuccessfulEffectsStandardsVicesImprovementEnjoymentAccumulationVice VersaCause And EffectStandards Of LivingAmenitiesAmerican Way Of Life
Book:Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays
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“It is true that some secluded intellectuals in their esoteric circles talk differently. They proclaim the priority of what they call eternal absolute values and feign in their declamations—not in their personal conduct—a disdain of things secular and transitory. But the public ignores such utterances. The main goal of present-day political action is to secure for the respective pressure group memberships the highest material well-being. The only way for a leader to succeed is to instill in people the conviction that his program best serves the attainment of this goal.”

PeopleWayWellsActionPoliticalValuesGoalLeaderGroupsMaterialsSucceedEternalHighestProgramAbsolutesPressureConvictionPrioritiesCirclesSecureWell BeingSecularAttainmentPresent DayDisdainUtteranceMembershipInstillEsotericTransitoryPolitical ActionSecludedDeclamationPressure Groups
Book:Human action: a treatise on economics
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