Maxioms by Ludwig Von Mises
People do not cooperate under the division of labor because they love or should love one another. They cooperate because read more
People do not cooperate under the division of labor because they love or should love one another. They cooperate because this best serves their own interests. Neither love nor charity nor any other sympathetic sentiments but rightly understood selfishness is what originally impelled man to adjust himself to the requirements of society, to respect the rights and freedoms of his fellow men and to substitute peaceful collaboration for enmity and conflict.
...the only means to well-being is to increase the quantity of products. This is what business aims at.
...the only means to well-being is to increase the quantity of products. This is what business aims at.
Society is joint action and cooperation in which each participant sees the other partner's success as a means for the read more
Society is joint action and cooperation in which each participant sees the other partner's success as a means for the attainment of his own.
The avowed aim of all utopian movements is to put an end to history and to establish a final and read more
The avowed aim of all utopian movements is to put an end to history and to establish a final and permanent calm.
The rich adopt novelties and become accustomed to their use. This sets a fashion which others imitate. Once the richer read more
The rich adopt novelties and become accustomed to their use. This sets a fashion which others imitate. Once the richer classes have adopted a certain way of living, producers have an incentive to improve the methods of manufacture so that soon it is possible for the poorer classes to follow suit. Thus luxury furthers progress. Innovation "is the whim of an elite before it becomes a need of the public. The luxury today is the necessity of tomorrow." Luxury is the roadmaker of progress: it develops latent needs and makes people discontented. In so far as they think consistently, moralists who condemn luxury must recommend the comparatively desireless existence of the wild life roaming in the woods as the ultimate ideal of civilized life.
