Quote

Action is an attempt to substitute a more satisfactory state of affairs for a less satisfactory one. We call such a willfully induced alteration an exchange.

Ludwig von Mises

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Ludwig von Mises
Age: 92 †
Born: 1881
Born: September 29
Died: 1973
Died: October 10
Economist
Philosopher
University Teacher
Writer
Lemberg
Austria
Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises
Ludwig Heinrich Mises
Needs
Libertarian
Alteration
Attempt
Alterations
Affair
Induced
Call
Satisfactory
State
Substitute
Less
Exchange
Action
Substitutes
States
Affairs
Willfully

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Nobody is in a position to decree what should make a fellow man happier.
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Public works are not accomplished by the miraculous power of a magic wand. They are paid for by funds taken away from the citizens.
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The boom squanders through malinvestment scarce factors of production and reduces the stock available through overconsumption its alleged blessings are paid for by impoverishment.
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There is no other planning for freedom and general welfare than to let the market system work.
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The Pseudo-liberals monopolize the teaching jobs at many universities. Only men who agree with them are appointed as teachers and instructors of the social sciences, and only textbooks supporting their ideas are used.
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There can be no freedom in art and literature where the government determines who shall create them.
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The consumers are asking for, they lose their office. Their task is service to the consumer. Profit and loss are the instruments by means of which the consumers keep a tight rein on all business activities.
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The methods of the natural sciences cannot be applied to human behavior because this behaviorlacks the peculiarity that characterizes events in the field of the natural sciences, viz., regularity.
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Progressive taxation of income and profits means that precisely those parts of the income which people would have saved and invested are taxed away
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Permanent mass unemployment destroys the moral foundations of the social order. The young people, who, having finished their training for work, are forced to remain idle, are the ferment out of which the most radical political movements are formed. In their ranks the soldiers of the coming revolutions are recruited.
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Tyranny is the political corollary of socialism, as representative government is the political corollary of the market economy.
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The socialist system, however, forbids this fundamental freedom to choose one's own career. Under socialist conditions, there is only one economic authority, and it has the right to determine all matters concerning production.
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Profits are the driving force of the market economy. The greater the profits, the better the needs of the consumers are supplied... He who serves the public best, makes the highest profits.
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It is the rule of law alone which hinders the rulers from turning themselves into the worst gangsters.
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The flowering of human society depends on two factors: the intellectual power of outstanding men to conceive sound social and economic theories, and the ability of these or other men to make these ideologies palatable to the majority.
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War can really cause no economic boom, at least not directly, since an increase in wealth never does result from destruction of goods.
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Changes in human conditions are brought about by the pioneering of the cleverest and most energetic men. They take the lead and the rest of mankind follows them little by little.
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What is a loophole? If the law does not punish a definite action or does not tax a definite thing, this is not a loophole. It is simply the law.
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The history of mankind is the history of ideas. For it is ideas, theories, and doctrines that guide human action, determine the ultimate ends men aim at, and the choice of the means employed for the attainment of these ends.
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