Focus on Life™

An interesting article about Jean-Baptiste Say by Amadeus Gabriel:

Thus, society could work without government management if people carried out their business and let other people carry out their business at the same time. Say underlines his position by giving some historical examples. Writing in 1819, he observes that at times during the previous thirty years, France had found itself in a situation in which all the authorities were suddenly halted. In these critical moments, no government was at all existent. And what does Say observe? During these periods, the essential functions of the social body could not have been carried out in a better way: everything worked, better than would have normally been the case. Say states that the worst occurred in times when people were too much governed.

How do you like it when someone is exchanging nothing for something?
Kings did it in the past and we are doing it at the moment in massive scale as well.

Money and Inflation: The Tendency to Deny Reality by Frank Shostak.

“Too many people living in democracies are lulled into believing that they are free because they have the right to vote and elections are held periodically. If you take conscription for military service as an example, I think you would find that if it was proclaimed by a sole monarch, the people would revolt and disobey. However, in a democracy, when the politicians vote for it, the people comply and still think they are free.”

In the twentieth century 170 million people were killed by governments. It’s the bloodiest century in all history. Read an excerpt from A Century of War by John V. Denson.

Most of the developed countries have state pension systems that are dependent on annual tax revenues. This system based on false promises and illusions is something that will not last forever. Watch out and read Oskari Juurikkala’s article about Old-age Security Without the State.

Printing money does not increase the amount of products and services available in the market. It only increases the prices in the long term, in the short term it creates an illusion of increased wealth before the slow adjustment of prices catch up.

“The services money renders are conditioned by the height of its purchasing power. Nobody wants to have in his cash holding a definite number of pieces of money or a definite weight of money; he wants to keep a cash holding of a definite amount of purchasing power.”
Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, 3rd rev. ed. (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1966) p 421.

Read Gary North’s The Official Counterfeiter.

Frank Shostak explains global liquidity and whether there is such a thing: The Yen and Monetary Liquidity

We have assumed that there is only one way to solve disputes: commission a government monopoly over all people in case they might have some issues between each other. However, this assumption is not the only way to live - actually we have real life examples around us every day.

Not convinced yet? Read Market Chosen Law by Edward Stringham.

Our current societies involve a third party called government that is authorised to incur into any violent actions and force in order to protect its citizens. However just by watching the news it’s nothing new to realise that these powers are also used against the very people who give them to its agent, the state.

A life without a state above its people is possible and here’s an excellent excerpt from Murray N. Rothbard’s The Ethics of Liberty about The Right to Self-defense.

The wealth of any nation is dependent upon its people’s capabilities and resources to invest into new production. Some 50 years ago Ludwig von Mises gave this speech that is maybe even more valid today (and not just to Americans): Capital Supply And American Prosperity.

The root cause of inflation is very simple: the central bank produces money out of thin air.

A case in point: Fed’s Inflation Analysis Ranks With Zimbabwe’s: Caroline Baum

Why don’t we use gold as money anymore?

The Gold-Plated Sting by Gary North.