Ayn Rand on the businessman and bureaucrat

If a businessman makes a mistake, he suffers the consequences.  If a bureaucrat makes a mistake, you suffer the consequences. 

~ Ayn Rand

 

Thomas Sowell on war on the productive

No society ever thrived because it had a large and growing class of parasites living off those who produce.

~ Thomas Sowell

Jean-Baptiste Say on the difference between private and public borrowers

There is a grand distinction between an individual borrower and borrowing government, that, in general, the former borrows capital for the purpose of beneficial employment, the latter for the purpose of barren consumption and expenditure.

~ Jean-Baptiste Say, A Treatise on Political Economy, Kindle location 9469

Murray Rothbard on productivity

On the free market, everyone earns according to his productive value in satisfying consumer desires.  Under statist distribution, everyone earns in proportion to the amount he can plunder from the producers.

~ Murray Rothbard

Doug Casey: "There are basically two types of people in the world"

There are basically two types of people in the world—people that like to manipulate the physical universe and create things and people who like to manipulate other people and control them.  The people who go into government, whether they’re Democrats or Republicans, are the latter.  They’re dangerous. 

The problem is that the average citizen in every country around the world has come to think that the government is the most important entity in society.  It’s not; it’s a coercive fiction, a parasite that produces nothing.  The wrong kinds of people are being given even more control.

~ Doug Casey, "Doug Casey Reveals 3 Ways You Can Opt-Out of the Rising Insanity," Doug Casey's International Man, October 4, 2021

Murray Rothbard on how the libertarian sees government

Instead of a bumbling and inefficient tool of society, the radical [libertarian] sees the State itself, in its very nature, as coercive, exploitative, parasitic, and hence profoundly antisocial. The State is, and always has been, the great single enemy of the human race, its liberty, happiness, and progress. 

~ Murray Rothbard, Reason, March, 1974

A.R.J. Turgot on taxation

It seems that Public Finance, like a greedy monster, has been lying in wait for the entire wealth of the people. 

~ A.R.J. Turgot, 1763

Felix Zulauf on economic stimulus and government spending

The government share of the economy will continue to rise.  The more government is involved in the economy, the less productive and efficient the economy becomes.  If productivity falls, prosperity declines.  An ever-larger percentage of the population falls into poverty or near-poverty, and society takes on a bigger role in caring for those people.  We are slipping into planned economies and greater socialism. In the long term, it is the wrong recipe.

~ Felix Zulauf, "The View From Europe," Barron's, February 20, 2021

Kevin Duffy on divisiveness and the state

The state is masterful at creating conflict: left vs. right, rich vs. poor, black vs. white, male vs. female, us vs. them. This is meant to distract us from the real conflict: the state living at the expense of the rest of us, i.e., parasite vs. host.

~ Kevin Duffy

Kevin Duffy on political realignment in the U.S.

Political coalitions are never etched in stone. In fact, the U.S. appears to be at an inflection point where they are splitting apart. The GOP is no longer the party of the rich. It is becoming the party of small business, the middle class and working class. The Democrats are becoming the party of the corporate elites, welfare dependents and cultural Marxists. Politically, the country seems to be realigning into two sides: the productive host vs. political parasite. Only time will tell. 

This must happen soon, before the parasite destroys the host.

~ Kevin Duffy, "2020 Election: Trump the Disruptor," The Coffee Can Portfolio, November 2, 2020

Kevin Duffy on the Ron Paul revolution, 2020 election and political realignment

The Dems have always believed in big government.  They’ve never tried to pretend otherwise.  There isn’t a problem in the world that can’t be solved by mobilizing government and taxing the rich.  They believe that in their bones.  The only question was whether there was anyone to stop them. The Republicans put up very little resistance.  Worse, they made no principled resistance.  That’s a recipe for disaster. 

What makes Trump different is not that he has some clear vision or that he can articulate a principled defense of individual rights. What makes him different is that he’s not a typical country club Republican.  In fact, Trump didn’t start this revolution.  It was started by Ron Paul (who actually did fight with principles).   Against all odds, Trump upset the apple cart and threw the Republican bums out of the club.  He also managed to halt the rise of Hillary.  

Political coalitions are splitting apart and realigning.  The Dems are the party of big money.  They raise twice as much campaign money as the Republicans and the 2020 election was likely even more lopsided (I believe Biden raised over $1 billion, a record).  Wall Street loves the Dems and was salivating over a blue wave (running up green stocks, for example).  Big Tech also loves the Dems (30 years ago they were largely libertarian and apolitical).  Talk about deep pockets. 

With their lockdowns, the Dems screwed lower income people and small business owners. Those wounds won’t heal anytime soon, if ever.   I see a separation and realignment towards those who live off of big government (the parasitic class) vs. those who just want to be left alone (the productive class). We’re still early in this shift, regardless of who wins the election.

~ Kevin Duffy, email to a friend, November 4, 2020

Murray Rothbard on group egalitarianism

In this regime of group egalitarianism, it becomes particularly important to take one's place in the ranks of the Oppressed rather than the Oppressors.  Who, then, are the Oppressed?  It is difficult to determine, since new groups of oppressed are being discovered all the time.  One almost longs for the good old days of classic Marxism, where there was only one oppressed class, the proletariat, and one or at most a very few classes of oppressors: the capitalists or bourgeois, plus sometimes the feudal landlords or perhaps the petit bourgeoisie.  But now, as the ranks of the oppressed and therefore the groups specially privileged by society and the State keep multiplying, and the ranks of the oppressors keep dwindling, the problem of income and wealth egalitarianism reappears and is redoubled.  For more and greater varieties of groups are continually being added to the parasitic burden weighing upon an ever-dwindling supply of oppressors.  And since it is obviously worth everyone's while to leave the ranks of the oppressors and move over to the oppressed, pressure groups will increasingly succeed in doing so, so long as this dysfunctional ideology continues to flourish.

Specifically, achieving the label of Officially Oppressed entitles one to share in an endless flow of benefits in money, status, and prestige from the hapless Oppressors, who are made to feel guilty forevermore, even as they are forced to sustain and expand the endless flow.  It is not surprising that attaining oppressed status takes a great deal of pressure and organization.  As Joseph Sobran wittily puts it: it takes a lot of clout to be a victim.  Eventually, if trends continue, the result must be the twin death of parasite and host alike, and an end to any flourishing economy or civilization.

~ Murray Rothbard, "The Menace of Egalitarianism," Rothbard-Rockwell Report, April 1991

Doug Casey on the Deep State (culture, not conspiracy)

The Deep State is destructive, but it’s great for the people in it. And, like any living organism, its prime directive is: Survive! It survives by indoctrinating the fiction that it’s both good and necessary. However, it’s a parasite that promotes the ridiculous notion that everyone can live at the expense of society.

Is it a conspiracy, headed by a man stroking a white cat? I think not. I find it’s hard enough to get a bunch of friends to agree on what movie to see, much less a bunch of power-hungry miscreants bent on running everyone’s lives. But, on the other hand, the top dogs all know each other, went to the same schools, belong to the same clubs, socialize, and, most important, have common interests, values, and philosophies.

~ Doug Casey, "The Deep State is Responsible for All Economic Turmoil," LewRockwell.com, June 23, 2020

Judge Napolitano on the nature of government

Unless you work for it, sell to it, or receive financial assistance from it, the government is not your friend.  For average Americans today, the state is predator not protector.

~ Judge Andrew Napolitano, Constitutional Chaos

Joseph Salerno on the two classes in the economy

There are only two classes in the economy, and that is, the people who live off their production and exchange, which is voluntary and those that then are parasitic and suck away all of the income and wealth that is produced by people who exchange and live voluntarily.

~ Joseph Salerno, "Dr. Joseph Salerno: Another Major Bust Coming Soon," Wall St. For Main St.,  October 2015

Joe Sobran on the politics of theft

Politics is the conspiracy of the unproductive but organized against the productive but unorganized.

~ Joe Sobran