If there’s anything the Mises Institute is dedicated to it is better Social Security, school vouchers, getting rid of roads and schools, common ownership of forests, and blocking out the sun!
Nevermind that Social Security of any kind is not a market at all and school vouchers make you pay whether you want to or not too (and further extend government monopoly). And we know how much liberals care about the precious profits of the people using the roads! Especially that poor Mr. Burns in the background. And if everyone’s making money off them, then surely no one will be able to pay for them or operate them! The builders and engineers will just evaporate!
If we object to Uncle Sam giving our money to special interests, then the leftist will simply claim that we can fix the government so it won’t do that.
If we object that Uncle Sam knows what’s best for us, then we are making a statement of principle. The leftist can only hate us for that.
i originally thought this would be about something else…perhaps a serious look as to why even the common rightist supports the state.
In the right conditions, which can last for very long amounts of time, is crime (coercive power) more profitable than good business (free market economic power)? If so, it is only natural that someone will monopolize it, or at least organize coercive power so that the market could not use their productivity to hire effective protection. In that criminals are celebrated for getting rid of other criminals, they gain the trust/acceptance of the public. In this regard, the state is racketeering. In its claimed economic and social services, worthy of your taxes, its promised reservations of power, and often its prior actions, it is fraudulent. This can fatten its wallet, but if the people are willing to produce enough to feed the state and not revolt in any manner, the state doesn’t need to dress up its guise.
democracy, in acting noble by giving everyone some voice, ironically seems destined to destroy the conditions necessary to support the state, as the state is the tyrannical majority, or some split between this and the republican representatives. A state this size cannot be profitable in using coercive power, quickly eroding the host producer class.
isms - nationalism, racism, culturalism, languagism, legalism - anything that creates emotional ties with a group identity, or gives one a feeling of empowerment. often this is expressed through a state.
geography and warfare - in cases where coercive power was being used to enforce conflicting sets of laws, there could very well be collateral damage, fueling vendettas. when societies are prone to use war to settle problems and differences, geographic isolation, with occasional border skirmishes is probably preferable to war in the streets.
apathy - why change behavior if you don’t care.
indoctrination - are you sure a free market would be a GOOD thing?! I think I’ve heard differently… ;-p
fear of the unknown - the limited number and exposure of stateless societies is generally unknown. and even more than other things, people tend to fear radical change in government.
complexity - gut reaction of what’s easier to wrap your head around - how 300 million-4 billion people coordinate their lives so that they help each other and avoid conflict, or how one state provides one set of laws to do this? Most people would say choice #2, even though they’ve never actually tried to read the law, or even understand how huge and complex it is.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t find anything about it funny.
My point is not in pointing out something for all to laugh at its absurdity, but to show what an easy job the state has made of maintaining mythology and psychological barriers to freedom. I find no arguments toward libertarians from the average American. Most of it – most of the people that make comics like this – are the most indoctrinated and steadfast to the belief in collectivism. They have extremely hard views that everyone needs to pull their arbitrarily chosen quantified weight and “give” something more than what others in trade are able to ask for. It’s basically religious, fanatical frustration steeped in very dark sarcasm.
