The Mises Intitute websites always have a quotable Mies section where good quotes from Ludwig von Mises appear. I like it, and these entries will feature excerpts from works of Mises that I liked. For a start, I will post two versions of the same quotes from his Memoirs.
The quote also reflects my realization on the virtue of Capitalism:
"My first doubts about the excellence of interventionism came to me when, in my fifth semester, Professor Philippovich induced me to research housing conditions and when, in the following semester in the Seminar on Criminal Law, Professor Loffler asked me to research the changes in law regarding domestic servants, who at the time were still subject to corporal punishment by their employers. It then dawned on me that all real improvements in the conditions of the working classes were the result of capitalism; and that social laws frequently brought about the very opposite of what the legislation was intended to achieve.
"It was only after further study of economics that the true nature of interventionism was revealed to me."
*******
It was during my fifth semester at the university that I first began
to entertain doubts concerning the supremacy of interventionism.
Professor Philippovich assigned me to do an investigation of
housing conditions. The following semester, Professor Löffler,
in his seminar on criminal law, asked me to research changes in
law affecting domestic servants, who at the time were still subject
to the corporal punishment of their employers. It became
obvious to me that any improvement in the plight of the working classes was a result of capitalism,
and that the outcome of social legislation
often ran opposite to the intentions of its authors.
It was the study of political economy, however, that led me to
an understanding of the true nature of interventionism.
No comments:
Post a Comment