8. Summary

Austrian economics has provided me with the intellectual ammunition to support my natural tendency to say “no” to all forms of government intervention.

Mises provides an inspiration to stick to principle and to argue quietly and confidently in favor of the superiority of a decentralized, consumer-oriented market, in contrast to a bureaucratic centrally planned economy.

Mises is clear about the responsibility we all have in establishing a free society. He concludes Socialism with this advice:

Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders; no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way out for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interests, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle. None can stand aside with unconcern; the interests of everyone hang on the result. Whether he chooses or not, every man is drawn into the great historical struggle, the decisive battle into which our epoch has plunged us.¹⁵

And in Human Action he states:

There is no means by which anyone can evade his personal responsibility. Whoever neglects to examine to the best of his abilities all the problems involved voluntarily surrenders his birthright to a self-appointed elite of supermen. In such vital matters blind reliance upon “experts” and uncritical acceptance of popular catchwords and prejudices is tantamount to the abandonment of self-determination and to yielding to other people’s domination. As conditions are today, nothing can be more important to every intelligent man than economics. His own fate and that of his progeny is at stake.¹⁶

I’m convinced, as was Mises, that the solutions to the crisis we face must be positive (which is just one reason I am so pleased by the establishment of the Ludwig von Mises Institute). He stated in The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality that the “anti-movement” has “no chance whatever to succeed” and that “what alone can prevent the civilized nations of western Europe, America and Australia from being enslaved by the barbarism of Moscow is open and unrestricted support of laissez-faire capitalism.”¹⁷

Without Austrian economics, I would not have had my political career. The strongest motivating force in my political activities is to live free since I was born free. Liberty is my first goal. The free market is the only result that can be expected from a free society. I do not accept individual freedom because the market is efficient. Even if the free market were less “efficient” than central planning, I would still prefer my personal freedom to coercion. Fortunately, I don’t need to make a choice. Austrian economics upholds the market’s efficiency, and that reinforces my overwhelming desire and right to be free.

If no adequate intellectual explanation existed as to the efficiency of the free market, no political activism of any sort would be possible for any pro-freedom person. Our position would only be a theoretical pipe dream.

I see no conflict however between a utilitarian defense of the market economy and the argument for a free market as a consequence of a moral commitment to natural God-given rights, for there is no conflict. The economist’s approval of the market for purely utilitarian reasons actually becomes a more “objective” analysis if not approached from a natural rights standpoint. But when combined with a natural-rights philosophy, it is even more powerful. No choice must be made. The utilitarian argument does not exclude the belief that life and liberty originates with the Creator. When they are added together they become doubly important.

When one argues for the free market on utilitarian grounds, one starts with particular actions by the individual. In starting with a natural rights argument the “a priori” becomes “the gift of life and liberty” as natural or God-given.

The utilitarians may be neutral or antagonistic regarding the origins of life and liberty, but this in no way weakens their explanation of the technical advantages of a free economic system. However, those who accept a natural rights philosophy have no choice whatsoever but to accept laissez-faire capitalism.

Mises’s utilitarian defense of the market opens political careers for those who believe in liberty, courage, and even dares one who truly believes in the system to present it in political terms.

Mises in Human Action says:

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.¹⁸

Ludwig von Mises certainly provided sound economic and social theories. I hope that my modest success in politics may encourage others to try it, and help prove Mises “wrong,” showing that a political career is open to men and women who do not identify themselves with the interests of a pressure group, but with the liberty of all.

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¹Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, Scholar’s Edition (Auburn, Alabama: Mises Institute, 1998), p. 866.

²Friedrich A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944).

³Ludwig von Mises, “Stones into Bread: The Keynesian Miracle,” Planning for Freedom (South Holland, Illinois: Libertarian Press, 1974), p. 63.

⁴Jacques Rueff, “The Intransigence of Ludwig von Mises,” in On Freedom and Free Enterprise, Mary Sennholz, ed. (Princeton, New Jersey: D. Van Nostrand, 1956), p. 15.

⁵Murray Rothbard, The Essential von Mises (Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 1983).

⁶Ludwig von Mises, Planned Chaos (Irvington-on-Hudson, New York: Foundation for Economic Education, 1947), p. 34.

⁷Ludwig von Mises, A Critique of Interventionism (New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House, 1977), p. 23.

⁸Ludwig von Mises, The Theory of Money and Credit (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1953).

⁹Mises, “Lord Keynes and Say’s Law,” Planning for Freedom, p. 68.

¹⁰Mises, Human Action, p. 854.

¹¹Ibid., pp. 819–20.

¹²Ibid., p. 174.

¹³Ibid., p. 175.

¹⁴Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, 3rd rev. ed. (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1966), p. 282.

¹⁵Ludwig von Mises, Socialism (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1951), p. 515.

¹⁶Mises, Human Action, pp. 874–75.

¹⁷Ludwig von Mises, The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality (South Holland, Illinois: Libertarian Press, 1972), p. 112.

¹⁸Mises, Human Action, p. 860.