Posts in "Mises"

Hans Schulzke's picture
By Hans Schulzke at 7:49AM

Mises' Lessons for Activists

Ludwig von Mises "Tu ne cede malis."Ludwig von Mises is the white knight of the Austrian School. His life and work have shaped and guided classical liberalism, libertarianism, anarcho-capitalism, and volutaryism in profound ways. A careful reading of his magnum opus, Human Action, can radically alter and improve our approach to activism, fundraising, and recruiting. 

In the first chapter of Human Action, “Acting Man,” Mises identifies three necessary conditions for a man to act. First, he must feel discontent or uneasiness; there must be something he doesn’t like about his life.  Second, he must have an image of a more satisfying state of affairs. Third, and most vital, he must have some expectation that his actions “will remove or at least alleviate the felt uneasiness.”

Mises’s analysis can serve as a template for building events. Our job as activists is, essentially, to get people to act. Therefore our activities should be geared towards Mises’s prerequisites of action.  When you plan your activism, use the Misesian matrix.


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Drew Owens's picture
By Andrew Owens at 9:19AM

Mises University 2011 Comes to an End

The Ludwig von Mises Institute's week-long Mises University program was amazing as always this year, with students representing about 32 US states and over 30 different countries.  Lectures ranged from topics such as money and banking to the division of labor and praxeology.  Meals were provided and everyone was able to discuss the fallacies of the state before heading to the bars to see Bob Murphy performing on stage.  

Students were able to choose from concurrent lectures each day and ultimately chose whether or not to take a written and oral examination in front of a panel of judges.  I think it is extremely exciting for the liberty movement that during this precipitous time in our history, multiple conferences like Mises U and events such as the YAL National Convention are now commonplace among options for students to involve themselves.  This year's Mises University boasted the largest attendence on record, with many more applicants than could be accepted.  There is no doubt now after having attended this program that the ideas of Mises, Rothbard, and the rest of the Austrian school are spreading all over the world.  Many students will return home to their respective countries and localities to spread the message of economic liberty and its importance for societal progress.  

To all who attended, it was great sharing the experience with you.  To all who were not able, be looking for upcoming events regarding the Mises Institute.  There might be a Mises Circle coming to your area!

Therefore nothing is more important today than to enlighten public opinion about the basic differences between genuine Liberalism, which advocates the free market economy, and the various interventionist parties which are advocating government interference. -- Mises, in Economic Freedom and Interventionism 

Dustin Reid's picture
By Dustin Reid at 3:41PM

Liberty Organizations Overtake CPAC 2010

I had intended on writing a recap of my experience at this years Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), however, I believe this video sums up my thoughts and emotions quite well.

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TJ Baurain's picture
By Tom Baurain at 9:19AM

Ron Paul: A Typographic Portrait

image

I created this for my Principles of Design class. The project was to take a photo and replicate it with type. This is my result using Dr. Ron Paul! I hope you enjoy it. You can view the original photo here.

Elliot Engstrom's picture
By Elliot Engstrom at 7:36AM
Bonnie Kristian's picture
By Bonnie Kristian at 9:40PM

The Political Chances of Genuine Liberalism

"The outlook of many eminent champions of genuine liberalism is rather pessimistic today.
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Bonnie Kristian's picture
By Bonnie Kristian at 7:22PM

Jaguar Inflation

Robert B. Prechter, Jr. explains the fallacy of government-supported expansion of credit on Mises.org today through clever analogy.  Imagine, he says, if the government decided that Jaguar cars must be available to everyone in the country as readily as possible...
To facilitate that goal, it begins operating Jaguar plants all over the country, subsidizing production with tax money. To everyone's delight, it offers these luxury cars for sale at 50% off the old price.

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Bonnie Kristian's picture
By Bonnie Kristian at 5:23AM

Running the Country

Mises said that "Society can continue to exist only on the foundation of private property.  Whoever champions the latter champions by the same token the preservation of the social bond that unites mankind, the preservation of culture and civilization." His quote highlights a fundamental problem in the way we talk about government: we say, quite habitually, that the government is "running the country."  For example, we might contend that "Now that Obama is running the country, the depression will only get worse."  The depression will probably get worse, but Obama isn't running the country -
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Chet Butterworth's picture
By Chet Butterworth at 10:14PM

Obama's Public-Private Partnership

In an article called, “Back Door to Socialism,” Chris Brown of Austro-Libertarian.com explains the fallacies of Public-Private Partnerships. These partnerships will be the key way President-Elect Obama will fuse the public and private sectors together even more than they already are.


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