Fiatch

“If everything possible is done to prevent the market from fulfilling its function of bringing supply and demand into balance, it should come as no surprise that a serious disproportionality between supply and demand persists, that commodities remain unsold, factories stand idle, millions are unemployed, destitution and misery are growing and that finally, in the wake of all these, destructive radicalism is rampant in politics … With the economic crisis, the breakdown of interventionist policy — the policy being followed today by all governments, irrespective of whether they are responsible to parliaments or rule openly as dictatorhsips — becomes apparent. Hampering the functions of the market and the formation of prices does not create order. Instead it leads to chaos, to economic crisis.”

“Socialism and interventionism. Both have in common the goal of subordinating the individual unconditionally to the state.”

“All this passionate praise of the supereminence of government action is but a poor disguise for the individual interventionist’s self-deification. The great god State is a great god only because it is expected to do exclusively what the individual advocate of interventionism wants to see achieved.”

“An essential point in the social philosophy of interventionism is the existence of an inexhaustible fund which can be squeezed forever. The whole system of interventionism collapses when this fountain is drained off: The Santa Claus principle liquidates itself.”

“It is indeed one of the principal drawbacks of every kind of interventionism that it is so difficult to reverse the process.”

“Interventionism cannot be considered as an economic system destined to stay. It is a method for the transformation of capitalism into socialism by a series of successive steps.”

“The essence of the interventionist policy is to take from one group to give to another. It is confiscation and distribution.”

“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.”