In the first line of his book, Planning for Freedom , Ludwig von Mises, the famed Austrian economist, observed “Planning is socialism.” I will admit that my first acquaintance with government planners was a planning class in my Master’s program, where I was given the party line about how important it was to plan for growth. I read dozens of books,
Property rights are in trouble just about everywhere. The latest trend hits an economic right Americans have traditionally taken for granted: the right to build or buy the biggest home you can afford. The L.A. City Council recently approved, on an 11-0 vote, an “anti-mansionization” ordinance prohibiting smaller homes from being torn down and
A disturbing trend after Katrina was summed up in George Bush’s promise to have the federal government completely rebuild the Gulf Coast better than before the storm, and do so with taxpayer money. Can we really expect government to create quality cities using redistribution, government programs, and regulations? The Bay Area Center for Voting
After the Supreme Court’s Kelo ruling, in which it refused to intervene in a local case of eminent domain, many on the plaintiff side predicted the end of the world as we know it. “It opens the possibility for blanket government evasions of the takings limits the founders established.” “The sanctity of peoples’ homes now exists solely at the whim
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.