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Is it not obvious that the more complex an economy, the more certainly will governmental control of productive effort exert a retarding influence?

Leonard Read

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Leonard Read
Age: 84 †
Born: 1898
Born: September 26
Died: 1983
Died: May 14
Businessperson
Economist
Philosopher
Writer
Hubbardston
Michigan
Leonard Edward Read
Leonard E. Read
Effort
Productive
Complexes
Complex
Obvious
Certainly
Influence
Retarding
Control
Governmental
Economy
Exert

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If the bureaucracy is not checked, it will tend to build, in the name of peace, a defense against every conceivable contingency - so much 'security' that 'the secured' are without resources - helpless and hopeless.
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Politicians, bureaucrats, editors, new commentators, 'economists' teachers,' and other word artists who denounce private enterprise and praise socialism are their own worst enemies...these attackers are unwittingly destroying the sources of their own livelihood. They kill the geese that lay the golden eggs - and don't know it!
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Such terms as communism, socialism, Fabianism, the welfare state, Nazism, fascism, state interventionism, egalitarianism, the planned economy, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, the New Frontier are simply different labels for much the same thing.
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Once an activity has been socialized, it is impossible to point out, by concrete example, how men in a free market could better conduct it. How, for instance, can one compare a socialized post office with private postal delivery when the latter has been outlawed?
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There could be no greater error than to conclude that statism caused prosperity.
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Whenever government assumed responsibility for the security, welfare, and prosperity of citizens, the costs of government rise beyond the point where it is politically expedient to cover them by direct tax levies.
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What, actually, is the difference between communism and fascism? Both are forms of statism, authoritarianism. The only difference between Stalin's communism and Mussolini's fascism is an insignificant detail in organizational structure.
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...the greatest political problem facing the world today is...how to curb the oppressive power of government, how to keep it within reasonable bounds.
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Statism, which forces all of us within its orbit, is nothing but a political system of organized plunder, managed by every conceivable type of pressure group.
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The proper and limited use of government is to invoke a common justice and keep the peace - and that is all.
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Were it necessary to bring a majority into a comprehension of the libertarian philosophy, the cause of liberty would be utterly hopeless. Every significant movement in history has been led by one or just a few individuals with a small minority of energetic supporters.
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The more complex our economy, the more we should rely on the miraculous, self-adapting processes of men acting freely. No mind of man nor any combination of minds can even envision, let alone intelligently control, the countless human energy exchanges in a simple society, to say nothing of a complex one.
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Socialistic practices are now so ingrained in our thinking, so customary, so much a part of our mores, that we take them for granted.
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The libertarian can have no truck with 'left' or 'right' because he regrets any form of authoritarianism - the use of police force to control the creative life of man.
Leonard Read
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In market terms, one is entitled to what others will offer in willing exchange. That is all!
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There is really nothing that can be done except by an individual. Only individuals can learn. Only individuals can think creatively. Only individuals can cooperate. Only individuals can combat statism.
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The solution to this problem [welfare-statism] must take a positive form: the restoration of a faith in what free men can accomplish.
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The Constitution was definitely and specifically designed to hobble all people who are so foolish as to think themselves capable of leading others by compulsion. It so functions today to an extent exasperating to the authoritarians - which is why they want to get rid of it.
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The advancement of freedom is not a matter of who wields political power over creative actions rather, it depends upon the disassembling of such power.
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The system of plunder derives much of its support from individuals who do not subscribe to socialism but who say, 'We're paying for it, so we might as well get our share'
Leonard Read