“Two or three generations ago even in England an indoor bathroom was considered a luxury; today the home of every English worker of the better type contains one. Thirty-five years ago there were no automobiles; twenty years ago the possession of such a vehicle was the sign of a particularly luxurious mode of living; today in the United States even the worker has his Ford. This is the course of economic history. The luxury of today is the necessity of tomorrow.
Every advance first comes into being as the luxury of a few rich people, only to become, after a time, the indispensable necessity taken for granted by everyone. Luxury consumption provides industry with the stimulus to discover and introduce new things. It is one of the dynamic factors in our economy. To it we owe the progressive innovations by which the standard of living of all strata of the population has been gradually raised.”
— Ludwig von Mises.
(via haereticum)
7:47 pm • 11 January 2013 • 125 notes
“I’m going to ask you all a question. Weapons for what? To fight against whom? Against the Revolutionary Government that is backed by the entire population?
Weapons for what? Is there a dictatorship here?
Are they going to fight against a free government that respects the rights of the citizenry?
Now that there is no censorship, and that the press is entirely free, more free than it’s ever been, and having the assurance that it will continue to be forever without there ever being censorship here again?
Today, that the entire population can gather freely? Today, that there’s no tortures, or political prisoners, or assassinations, or terror? Today, that there’s nothing but happiness, that all the traitorous leaders have been sacked in the trade unions and that there will be immediate elections in all the trade unions?
When all the rights of the citizen have been restored, when an election is being planned in the briefest time possible, weapons for what? Hiding weapons for what? To blackmail the President of the Republic? To threaten to disturb the peace? To create gangster organizations? Are we going to return to gangsterism? Are we going to return to daily shootouts in the streets of the capital?
Weapons for what?”
— Fidel Castro (1959), on gun control.
(Source: laliberty)
11:50 pm • 28 December 2012 • 71 notes
“If nothing is done and we go over the ‘cliff,’ then total spending will drop from $3.563 trillion to $3.554 trillion, a reduction of $9 billion, or 0.3%. Notice everyone, I am saying a drop of three-tenths of one percent. Then, by 2014, total spending will have risen to above where it was this year, in 2012.”
— Robert Murphy, on the fiscal cliff.
7:26 pm • 26 December 2012 • 73 notes
“There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”
— Sam Walton.
(via laliberty)
10:16 pm • 23 December 2012 • 125 notes
“I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.
[But] no State upon its own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union. … Plainly the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. … The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government. … In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority.”
— Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address.
(Source: libertarians)
8:19 pm • 17 December 2012 • 18 notes
“I consider [states’ rights] as the chief source of stability to our political system, whereas the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it.”
— Robert E. Lee, Confederate General.
(Source: libertarians)
9:41 pm • 16 December 2012 • 62 notes
