Middle-of-the-Road Policy Leads to Socialism
Middle-of-the-Road Policy Leads to Socialism, by Ludwig von Mises (audio version here)
I stumbled across this gem recently, which does a great job of explaining just what it says–that moderate, middle-of-the-road policy is unsustainable and just leads steadily towards socialism. There is no “improvement” that can be applied to a free market economy that does not fail and require further “improvements” ad infinitum, until you arrive at all-out socialism.
Whether you’re talking about regulation, taxation, price controls, minimum wages, or any other market intervention, they never succeed at achieving their stated goals and, if you subscribe to the mode of thought that endorsed the intervention in the first place, will always require more interventions.
This is of course what we’re seeing today as ill-conceived government actions lead to catastrophic failures that require still further and more drastic measures. We will continue this destructive pattern into oblivion until we educate ourselves on the workings of the free market and understand that there is no intervention that is either ethical or effective and renounce all such activity forevermore.