Always and everywhere, the only serious political issue is what the state should and should not do. All the rest distracts. Llewellyn Rockwell More Quotes by Llewellyn Rockwell More Quotes From Llewellyn Rockwell Private enterprise creates; government destroys. That is the great economic lesson of our times and all times. Llewellyn Rockwell liberty lessons government Anything other than free enterprise always means a society of compulsion and lower living standards, and any form of socialism strictly enforced means dictatorship and the total state. That this statement is still widely disputed only illustrates the degree to which malignant fantasy can capture the imagination of intellectuals. Llewellyn Rockwell freedom business life The only reason for a government service is precisely to provide financial support for an operation that is otherwise unsustainable, or else there would be no point in the government's involvement at all. Llewellyn Rockwell support government would-be Wealth is not a given or an accident of history. It is not bestowed on us like rain from above. It is the product of human creativity in an environment of freedom. The freedom to own, to make contracts, to save, to invest, to associate, and to trade: these are the key to prosperity. Llewellyn Rockwell creativity keys rain What we need is a new consciousness concerning the idea of human liberty. Llewellyn Rockwell liberty freedom ideas If the people are led to believe that scarce resources are best channeled in a direction that producers and consumers would not choose on their own, the result must necessarily be central planning. Llewellyn Rockwell philosophy believe people Prosperity is an essential partner in civilization itself. It is the basis of leisure, charity, and a hopeful outlook on life. It is the means for conquering poverty at the lowest rung of society, the basis on which children and the elderly are cared for, the foundation for the cultivation of arts and learning. Crush an economy and you crush civilization. Llewellyn Rockwell crush children art We like to imagine that in history, truth will prevail through sheer persuasive power. Sadly, this is not the case. Truth needs champions. Llewellyn Rockwell truth-will-prevail champion needs Subsidies create more of whatever is being subsidized. Llewellyn Rockwell subsidies libertarian liberty To concede that there are social problems that cannot be corrected without the state is to give up the entire argument over the future of liberty itself. Llewellyn Rockwell argument giving-up liberty What the American worker needs is more of what WalMart offers and less of what the government offers. Llewellyn Rockwell walmart government needs Profit is a signal that valuable services are being rendered to people on a voluntary basis. Llewellyn Rockwell libertarian liberty people In education, it is said that the state must impose schooling on all children, else the parents and communities will neglect it. Only the state can make sure that no child is left behind. The only question is the means: will we use the union and bureaucracies favored by the left, or the market incentives and vouchers favored by the right. I don't want to get into a debate about which means is better, but only to draw attention to the reality that these are both forms of planning that compromise the freedom of families to manage their own affairs. Llewellyn Rockwell mean children reality The leviathan state, that monster devouring civilization in this century, is in the throes of death. This is not a wish or a prediction, but a conclusion drawn from a broad look at the trends of the last decade and a half, which, if we take the right steps, can continue on into the next century. What has happened around the world - nations states collapsing, markets outwitting planners, citizens rising up against government masters - can and is happening here at home. Llewellyn Rockwell rising-up government home The fact is that the New Deal did not work. It prolonged what might have been a troubling two-year downturn into a horrifying blow to world prosperity that ended up in a war that killed countless millions. It was one of the greatest acts of wreckage in world history. Llewellyn Rockwell blow war years What makes for the good society is a sound economy. Without it, all the rest falls apart. Llewellyn Rockwell falling-apart sound fall To centralize power in the name of freedom is akin to putting a crime syndicate in charge of rooting out corruption. It is the normal state of politics that the more centralized it is, the more damage it does. Fast-track authority [for government-to-government trade agreements] centralizes power and is therefore part of the problem. Llewellyn Rockwell government agreement names Everything done by the state is ultimately done by means of aggression, which is to say violence or the threat of violence against the innocent. Llewellyn Rockwell political philosophy mean The laws of economics tell us that the expansion of the central state can't go on forever. Its limit is reached when the looted turn on the looters. And that's beginning to happen. More than six decades of hard work for American liberty beginning with the Old Right opposition to the Roosevelt Revolution and continuing with the Mises Institute, is beginning to bear fruit. Llewellyn Rockwell hard-work law forever The larger the government, the more our livings standards are reduced. We are fortunate as a civilization that the progress of free enterprise generally outpaces the regress of government growth, for, if that were not the case, we would be poorer each year - not just in relative terms, but absolutely poorer too. The market is smart and the government is dumb, and to these attributes do we owe the whole of our economic well-being. Llewellyn Rockwell smart government years