JVParkour
05-11-2011, 05:49 PM
Specialists for the Defense
We libertarians cannot content ourselves merely with
repeating pious generalities about liberty, free enterprise,
and limited government. To assert and repeat
these general principles is absolutely necessary, of
course, either as prologue or conclusion. But if we hope
to be individually or collectively effective, we must individually
master a great deal of detailed knowledge,
and make ourselves specialists in one or two lines, so
that we can show how our libertarian principles apply
in special fields, and so that we can convincingly dispute
the proponents of statist schemes for public housing, farm subsidies, increased relief, bigger Social Security benefits, bigger Medicare, guaranteed incomes,
bigger government spending, bigger taxation,
especially more progressive income taxation, higher
tariffs or import quotas, restrictions or penalties on foreign
investment and foreign travel, price controls,
wage controls, rent controls, interest rate controls, more
laws for so-called "consumer protection," and still
tighter regulations and restrictions on business everywhere.
This means, among other things, that libertarians
must form and maintain organizations not only to promote
their broad principles—as do, for example, the
Foundation for Economic Education at Irvington-on-
Hudson, N. Y., the American Institute for Economic
Research at Great Barrington, Mass., and the American
Economic Foundation in New York City—but to promote
these principles in special fields. I am thinking, for
example, of such excellent existing specialized organizations
as the Citizens Foreign Aid Committee, the
Economists' National Committee on Monetary Policy,
the Tax Foundation, and so on.
We need not fear that too many of these specialized
organizations will be formed. The real danger is the
opposite. The private libertarian organizations in the
United States are probably outnumbered ten to one by
Communist, socialist, statist, and other left-wing organizations
that have shown themselves to be only too effective.
Find the whole article here, starting on page 214: http://mises.org/books/manwelfarestate.pdf
I came across it when I was writing a paper, and I though you guys might like it.
We libertarians cannot content ourselves merely with
repeating pious generalities about liberty, free enterprise,
and limited government. To assert and repeat
these general principles is absolutely necessary, of
course, either as prologue or conclusion. But if we hope
to be individually or collectively effective, we must individually
master a great deal of detailed knowledge,
and make ourselves specialists in one or two lines, so
that we can show how our libertarian principles apply
in special fields, and so that we can convincingly dispute
the proponents of statist schemes for public housing, farm subsidies, increased relief, bigger Social Security benefits, bigger Medicare, guaranteed incomes,
bigger government spending, bigger taxation,
especially more progressive income taxation, higher
tariffs or import quotas, restrictions or penalties on foreign
investment and foreign travel, price controls,
wage controls, rent controls, interest rate controls, more
laws for so-called "consumer protection," and still
tighter regulations and restrictions on business everywhere.
This means, among other things, that libertarians
must form and maintain organizations not only to promote
their broad principles—as do, for example, the
Foundation for Economic Education at Irvington-on-
Hudson, N. Y., the American Institute for Economic
Research at Great Barrington, Mass., and the American
Economic Foundation in New York City—but to promote
these principles in special fields. I am thinking, for
example, of such excellent existing specialized organizations
as the Citizens Foreign Aid Committee, the
Economists' National Committee on Monetary Policy,
the Tax Foundation, and so on.
We need not fear that too many of these specialized
organizations will be formed. The real danger is the
opposite. The private libertarian organizations in the
United States are probably outnumbered ten to one by
Communist, socialist, statist, and other left-wing organizations
that have shown themselves to be only too effective.
Find the whole article here, starting on page 214: http://mises.org/books/manwelfarestate.pdf
I came across it when I was writing a paper, and I though you guys might like it.