Omnipotent Government de Ludwig Von Mises

Omnipotent Government

Ludwig Von Mises

OMNIPOTENT GOVERNMENT- The Rise of the Total State and Total War BY Ludwig von Mises. Preface: IN dealing with the problems of social and economic policies, the social sciences consider only one question whether the measures suggested are really suited to bringing about the effects sought by their authors, or whether they result in a state of affairs which from the viewpoint of their supporters is even more undesirable than the previous state which it was in tended to alter. The economist does not substitute his own judg ment about the desirability of ultimate ends for that of his fellow citizens. He merely asks whether the ends sought by nations, gov ernments, political parties, and pressure groups can indeed be at tained by the methods actually chosen for their realization. It is, to be sure, a thankless task. Most people are intolerant of any criticism of their social and economic tenets. They do not understand that the objections raised refer only to unsuitable methods and do not dispute the ultimate ends of their efforts. They are not prepared to admit the possibility that they might attain their ends more easily by following the economists advice than by disregarding it. They call an enemy of their nation, race, or group anyone who ventures to criticize their cherished policies. This stubborn dogmatism is pernicious and one of the root causes of the present state of world affairs. An economist who as serts that minimum wage rates are not the appropriate means of raising the wage earners standard of living is neither a labor baiter nor an enemy of the workers. On the contrary, in suggesting more suitable methods for the improvement of the wage earners material well-being, he contributes as much as he can to a genuine promotion of their prosperity. To point out the advantages which everybody derives from the working of capitalism is not tantamount to defending the vested interests of the capitalists. An economist who forty or fifty years ago advocated the preservation of the system of private property and free enterprise did not fight for the selfish class interests of the then rich. He wanted a free hand left to those unknown among his penniless contemporaries who had the ingenuity to develop all those new industries which today render the life of the common man more pleasant. 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 a variety of less spectacular but iv Omnipotent Government no less useful innovations. These new products were certainly not an achievement of offices and bureaucrats. Not a single technical improvement can be credited to the Soviets. The best that the Russians have achieved was to copy some of the improvements of the capitalists whom they continue to disparage. Mankind has not reached the stage of ultimate technological perfection. There is ample room for further progress and for further improvement of the standards of living. The creative and inventive spirit subsists notwithstanding all assertions to the contrary. But it flourishes only where there is economic freedom. Neither is an economist who demonstrates that a nation let us call it Thule hurts its own essential interests in its conduct of foreign-trade policies and in its dealing with domestic minority groups, a foe of Thule and its people...

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Cuprins

Foreword to the Liberty Fund Edition; Preface; Introduction; The Collapse of German Liberalism; German Liberalism; The Ancien Régime and Liberalism; The Weakness of German Liberalism; The Prussian Army; The Constitutional Conflict in Prussia; The Little German Program; The Lassalle Episode; The Triumph of Militarism; The Prussian Army in the New German Empire; German Militarism; The Liberals and Militarism; The Current Explanation of the Success of Militarism; Nationalism; Etatism; The New Mentality; The State; The Political and Social Doctrines of Liberalism; Socialism; Socialism in Russia and in Germany; Interventionism; Etatism and Protectionism; Economic Nationalism and Domestic Monopoly Prices; Autarky; German Protectionism; Etatism and Nationalism; The Principle of Nationality; The Linguistic Group; Liberalism and the Principle of Nationality; Aggressive Nationalism; Colonial Imperialism; Foreign Investment and Foreign Loans; Total War; Socialism and War; Refutation of Some Fallacious Explanations; The Shortcomings of Current Explanations; The Alleged Irrationality of Nationalism; The Aristocratic Doctrine; Misapprehended Darwinism; The Role of Chauvinism; The Role of Myths; German Nazism; The Peculiar Characteristics of German Nationalism; The Awakening; The Ascendancy of Pan-Germanism; German Nationalism Within an Etatist World; A Critique of German Nationalism; Nazism and German Philosophy; Polylogism; Pan-Germanism and Nazism; The Social Democrats in Imperial Germany; The Legend; Marxism and the Labor Movement; The German Workers and the German State; The Social Democrats within the German Caste System; he Social Democrats and War; Anti-Semitism and Racism; The Role of Racism; The Struggle against the Jewish Mind; Interventionism and Legal Discrimination against Jews; The Stab in the Back; Anti-Semitism as a Factor in International Politics; The Weimar Republic and Its Collapse; The Weimar Constitution; The Abortive Socialisation; The Armed Parties; The Treaty of Versailles; The Economic Depression; Nazism and German Labour; The Foreign Critics of Nazism; Nazism as a World Problem; The Scope and Limitations of History; The Fallacy of the Concept of National Character; Germany's Rubicon; The Alternative; The Future of Western Civilisation; The Delusions of World Planning; The Term Planning; The Dictatorship Complex; A World Government; Planned Production; Foreign Trade Agreements; Monetary Planning; Planning International Capital Transactions; Peace Schemes; Armament Control; A Critique of Some Other Schemes Proposed; The Union of the Western Democracies; Peace in Eastern Europe; The Problems of Asia; The Role of the League of Nations; Conclusion; Index.