Saturday, September 29, 2012

Ludwig von Mises Quote of the Day

Ludwig von Mises was born on this day in 1889. It is appropriate therefore, to share one of my favorite quotes from Mises. It is one that helped inspire me to pursue economics as a vocation:
Socialism cannot he realized because it is beyond human power to establish it as a social system. The choice is between capitalism and chaos. A man who chooses between drinking a glass of milk and a glass of a solution of potassium cyanide does not choose between two beverages; he chooses between life and death. A society that chooses between capitalism and socialism does not choose between two social systems; it chooses between social cooperation and the disintegration of society. Socialism is not an alternative to capitalism; it is an alternative to any system under which men can live as human beings. To stress this point is the task of economics as it is the task of biology and chemistry to teach that potassium cyanide is not a nutriment but a deadly poison. Human Action, p. 676.
You can watch a tribute to Ludwig von Mises given by his American student Murray Rothbard here:

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