Weekend Read Part 1: von Mises
GraniteGrok friend and reader Jorge forwards the following link perfect for some deep, informative weekend reading.
Doug and Skip,
I think you’ll enjoy this tribute to Ludwig von Misses, on the occasion of his 125th birthday. I particularly enjoyed the narrative of his work and ideas in the context of the social and political history of the times.Mises: Defender of Freedom
By George Reisman
Today, September 29, 2006 is the one-hundred-and-twenty-fifth anniversary of the birth of Ludwig von Mises, economist and social philosopher, who passed away in 1973. Mises was my teacher and mentor and the source or inspiration for most of what I know and consider to be important and worthwhile in these fields — of what enables me to understand the events shaping the world in which we live. I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to him, because I believe that he deserves to occupy a major place in the intellectual history of modern times.Mises is important because his teachings are necessary to the preservation of material civilization. As he showed, the base of material civilization is the division of labor. Without the higher productivity of labor made possible by the division of labor, the great majority of mankind would simply die of starvation. The existence and successful functioning of the division of labor, however, vitally depends on the institutions of a capitalist society — that is, on limited government and economic freedom, private ownership of land and all other property, exchange and money, saving and investment, economic inequality and economic competition, and the profit motive — institutions everywhere under attack for several generations.
Click here to read the entire article. You'll be glad (and smarter) that you did.
