The state is, first and foremost, an institution whose overarching goal is the forcible subjugation of all the people who inhabit a given territory. However, what makes the state different from other coercive entities, such as organized crime groups, is that it enjoys some form of popular legitimacy. In other words, in addition to enslaving its inhabitants physically, it needs to secure their mental servitude as well.
Many forms of such servitude have been tested by rulers over the millennia, but by far the most effective among them is that of “representative democracy” coupled with the “welfare state.” “Representative democracy” is the illusion of universal participation in the use of institutional coercion. The “welfare state” is the reality of universal

Such is the intellectual stature of Ludwig von Mises that even many decades after his passing the opponents of classical liberalism and laissez-faire capitalism continue to attack his life’s work. A recent instance of this phenomenon is an article published in Jacobin by Matt McManus, which, rather unoriginally, accuses Mises of being a “market ideologue” rather than a “hardheaded thinker.” As readers of this website may expect, McManus fails to substantiate his accusations, instead revealing his limited understanding of the Misesian paradigm. In what follows, I shall investigate some of his main contentions and point out their major errors.
First, McManus quotes Mises’s observation from Socialism that “it is not possible to compromise … by putting part of the

The events of the last few years have resurrected a recurring worry among people mindful of their liberty, property, and personal dignity. This worry centers around the prospects of the emergence of the notorious “new world order,” a worldwide totalitarian plot hatched by globalist “elites” intent on destroying the surviving remains of free speech, free enterprise, and free thought.
Before asking how justified such worries are, let us note that the “new world order” narrative typically contains a “negative” and a “positive” element. The “negative” element describes how the global conspirators intend to bring about a worldwide socioeconomic collapse—i.e., eliminate the “old world order”—whereas the “positive” counterpart focuses on the nature of the global