Tag: Mentality

1292: Frederic Bastiat – The Socialists

We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain. —Frederic Bastiat

1281: Henry Hazlitt – Government-Provided Free Tuition

Government-provided free tuition tends more and more to produce a uniform conformist education, with college faculties ultimately dependent for their jobs on the government, and so developing an economic interest in the profession and teaching a statist, pro-government, and socialist ideology. —Henry Hazlitt

Government-provided free tuition tends more and more to produce a uniform conformist education, with college faculties ultimately dependent for their jobs on the government, and so developing an economic interest in the profession and teaching a statist, pro-government, and socialist ideology. —Henry Hazlitt

1265: John Stossel – People Are Not Comfortable with Freedom

People are not comfortable with freedom. They're scared, they're worried that if people can do whatever they want, the rich will abuse the poor, the strong will abuse the weak. It's just easier to believe that if you elect wise people who want to help, that it will be better. But it doesn’t help. Once I learned [libertarianism] it was just clear to me, but most people will never either spend the time to learn it or they can't learn it. —John Stossel

People are not comfortable with freedom. They’re scared, they’re worried that if people can do whatever they want, the rich will abuse the poor, the strong will abuse the weak. It’s just easier to believe that if you elect wise people who want to help, that it will be better. But it doesn’t help.
Once I learned [libertarianism] it was just clear to me, but most people will never either spend the time to learn it or they can’t learn it. —John Stossel

1248: Murray Rothbard – Statists are Really Opposed to Charity

Statists, in fact, are really opposed to charity. They often argue that charity is demeaning and degrading to the recipient, and that he should therefore be taught that the money is rightly his, to be given to him by the government as his due. An act of charity, when given voluntarily, is generally considered temporary and offered with the object of helping a man to help himself. But when the dole is ladled out by the State, it becomes permanent and perpetually degrading, keeping the recipients in a state of subservience. Anyone who considers private charity degrading must logically conclude that State charity is far more so. —Murray Rothbard

1247: Murray Rothbard – Taking Wealth by Force is Not Charity

It is hardly “charity” to take wealth by force and hand it over to someone else. Indeed, this is the direct opposite of charity… Compulsory confiscation can only deaden charitable desires completely, as the wealthier grumble that there is no point in giving to charity when the State has already taken on the task. —Murray Rothbard

It is hardly “charity” to take wealth by force and hand it over to someone else. Indeed, this is the direct opposite of charity… Compulsory confiscation can only deaden charitable desires completely, as the wealthier grumble that there is no point in giving to charity when the State has already taken on the task. —Murray Rothbard

1239: H.L. Mencken – Free Spirits in a Cage

There are, to be sure, free spirits in the world, but their freedom, in the last analysis, is not much greater than that of a canary in a cage. They may leap from perch to perch; they may bathe and guzzle at their will; they may flap their wings and sing. But they are still in the cage… Democracy provides swarms of such men. —H.L. Mencken

There are, to be sure, free spirits in the world, but their freedom, in the last analysis, is not much greater than that of a canary in a cage. They may leap from perch to perch; they may bathe and guzzle at their will; they may flap their wings and sing. But they are still in the cage… Democracy provides swarms of such men. —H.L. Mencken