With totalitarianism accelerating on a worldwide scale and having kicked off in earnest with federal government attacks by themselves populations during the still-running ruse of the covid vaccine, the state as an essential function of civilization stands prior to us shamelessly as a blood-dripping monster.
And acting as tyranny’s bulldog is the state’s handmaiden and echo chamber, the tradition media.
Are future generations predestined to live in an Orwellian problem?
Depending on the constitution and electing “great individuals” into workplace will not remove the source of our issues, which is: the government we inherited, the only organization that claims the legal right to money itself coercively through taxes and bank counterfeiting. We’re attempting to live by a double basic– what’s legal for the state is criminal for you, and always remember, the state has more weapons than you.
The only permanent solution is to get rid of the state completely– end the “political means” of obtaining wealth, as Franz Oppenheimer composed in his book The State (an organization that Albert Jay Nock defined as a “professional criminal class” in his traditional book Our Enemy, the State). However what’s the possibility of that occurring? Is it permanently destined the realm of fantasy? In Murray Rothbard’s words:
The [State] abolitionist is a “button pusher” who would blister his thumb pushing a button that would eliminate the State immediately, if such a button existed. However the abolitionist also knows that alas, such a button does not exist, which he will take a bit of the loaf if required– while constantly preferring the entire loaf if he can achieve it.
Ludwig Erhard, Button Pusher
Born in Furth, a part of the German empire, in 1897, Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard volunteered for the military in 1916 and was badly injured by an Allied weapons shell in 1918. Paradoxically, Adolf Hitler was likewise lying in a military medical facility at the very same time, recuperating from an Allied gas attack. Seven operations left Erhard’s left arm completely shorter than his ideal arm. After the war he studied economics at the University of Frankfurt and received his doctorate in 1925, with Franz Oppenheimer serving as his dissertation consultant.
With the rest of Germany, he suffered under run-away inflation following the war, then under Hitler’s climb to power in the 1930s. Throughout The Second World War he silently promoted ideas about the postwar financial healing following Hitler’s defeat, advocating a return to (mainly) free markets.
By the war’s end in 1945, Germany was a disaster. Its major cities had been ruined, millions had actually been killed, the currency was a mockery, and food was scarce. US, British, and Soviet leaders had actually satisfied at Yalta earlier in the year ostensibly to prevent the punitive reparations of the Treaty of Versailles that Hitler and his Nazis made use of to gain power. Later on, at the Potsdam Conference, the four Allied victors divided the pre-1938 territory of Germany into 4 zones, which eventually left Britain and the US administering the western zones, and the Soviets in charge of the east, which included all of Berlin, itself divided into four zones.
The challenge dealing with the Western military occupiers was how to restore the economy. During 1946 and 1947, the Nazi program of high financial inflation in addition to wage and cost controls continued, producing a rising black market and a nearly useless currency, the reichsmark. By keeping cost inflation suppressed, production stayed depressing, and Germans turned to trade to get food and other products. They worked only long enough during the week to get provision cards that they utilized to purchase what bit was available, spending the rest of their time gardening and performing black market deals.
On the other hand, German-speaking refugees were putting into the production-strangled economy from Poland. Conditions grew progressively worse such that by the middle of 1948 the economy had all however collapsed and hunger threatened much of the population.
At this moment, Erhard reached for his “button.” As the appointed financial czar (i.e., director of the bizonal economic administration) he had actually boldly announced a plan to replace the worthless reichsmark with a brand-new currency, the deutsche mark, along with a 90 percent reduction of the money supply. Concerning cost controls, Erhard needed consent from British and American authorities to change them. He didn’t alter them; he eliminated them completely. He inaugurated his intend on Sunday, June 20, 1948, when his military overseers were out of office.
On Saturday, June 19, retail shops were empty. On Monday, June 21, they were complete once again. French economic expert Jacques Rueff explained the “miracle”:
The black market unexpectedly disappeared. Shop windows were full of items; factory chimneys were cigarette smoking; and the streets swarmed with trucks. Everywhere the noise of new buildings increasing changed the deathly silence of the ruins. If the state of recovery was a surprise, its swiftness was even more so.
On the eve of currency reform, the Germans were aimlessly roaming about their towns looking for a couple of extra products of food. A day later on they thought about absolutely nothing however producing them. One day apathy was mirrored in their faces while on the next a whole nation looked hopefully into the future.
Was it actually a miracle? Erhard knew better:
[It was] anything however a miracle. It is the result of the honest efforts of a whole people who, in keeping with the concepts of liberty, were provided the opportunity of utilizing individual effort and human energy. If this German example has any worth beyond the frontiers of the country it can only be that of showing to the world at large the blessings of both personal and economic liberty. (emphasis mine)
It’s customary to cite handouts under the Marshall Strategy as saving Germany and other European countries harmed during the war. Even the Central Intelligence Firm got a piece of the action. However as Erhard noted, “Imports of raw materials under the Marshall Plan did not start till completion of 1948.” And by year’s end the German economy was already increasing from the dead thanks to economic freedom and the competitors it caused.
Could the “Miracle” Happen Here?
For post– The second world war Germans it was sink or swim under Erhard’s reforms. The majority of them selected to swim. They likewise had a reputable work ethic choosing them. Erhard’s reforms made work pay off.
It’s crucial to keep in mind what Erhard didn’t do. He did not develop a brand-new bureaucracy or set of guidelines. He was not George W. Bush enforcing an army of Department of Homeland Security bureaucrats on the American individuals to save them from another incorrect flag. He was not Ben Bernanke going wild with the printing press as an action to a crisis caused from previous bouts of money printing. He was not Joe Biden bragging about an Inflation Decrease Act that inflates state aggrandizement. Nor was he today’s German federal government slitting its energy throat by closing down its nuclear reactors.
Postwar Germans were not hindered for desire of a larger state. They were hampered due to the fact that of the state. Erhard was that rare individual with political power who used it to free his compatriots.
Think about: If a male takes his next-door neighbor’s automobile, it is theft. If his neighbor recovers his cars and truck, it is not theft, though without understanding of the original theft it may look that method. The reclaiming of the car is rightful restitution.
A leader who gets rid of state constraints on flexibility is acting to remove a wrong and thereby establish restitution. It is not an act of tyranny or theft or enslavement. Getting rid of an incorrect, such as abolishing the income tax or the federal reserve, does not enforce constraints on anybody. It releases people from theft. To argue that it injures those dependent on the Fed and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) does not have merit. They were beneficiaries of state plunder and do not have an ethical basis in their arguments. An empire powered by plunder eventually collapses.
Amongst today’s leaders, only Ron Paul has actually openly called for eliminating the Fed and the internal revenue service.
I suggest we require politicians who will basically put themselves out of a job. We need political leaders who understand the need of flexibility in human affairs and the damage the state does in limiting it. We require our own version of Ludwig Erhardt. Rothbard’s button does not exist, but it requires to be developed.