Quotes/Ludwig von Mises: Bureaucracy
“ For the time being, the ominous peril of the communist parties in the West lies in their stand on foreign affairs. The distinctive mark of all present-day communist parties is their devotion to the aggressive foreign policy of the Soviets. Whenever they must choose between Russia and their own country, they do not hesitate to prefer Russia. Their principle is: Right or wrong, my Russia. They strictly obey all orders issued from Moscow. When Russia was an ally of Hitler, the French communists sabotaged their own country's war effort and the American communists passionately opposed President Roosevelt's plans to aid England and France in their struggle against the Nazis. The communists all over the world branded all those who defended themselves against the German invaders as "imperialist warmongers." But as soon as Hitler attacked Russia, the imperialist war of the capitalists changed over-night into a just war of defense. Whenever Stalin conquers one more country, the communists justify this aggression as an act of self-defense against "Fascists."
In their blind worship of everything that is Russian, the communists of Western Europe and the United States by far surpass the worst excesses ever committed by chauvinists. They wax rapturous about Russian movies, Russian music and the alleged discoveries of Russian science. They speak in ecstatic words about the economic achievements of the Soviets. They ascribe the victory of the United Nations to the deeds of the Russian armed forces. Russia, they contend, has saved the world from the Fascist menace. Russia is the only free country while all other nations are subject to the dictatorship of the capitalists. The Russians alone are happy and enjoy the bliss of living a full life; in the capitalist countries the immense majority are suffering from frustration and unfulfilled desires. Just as the pious Muslim yearns for a pilgrimage to the Prophet's tomb at Mecca, so the communist intellectual deems a pilgrimage to the holy shrines of Moscow as the event of his life.
- -The framers of the constitution (usa) never conceived of a system of government in which the authorities would have to determine the price of pepper and oranges, cameras and razor blades, ties and paper napkins. But if such a possibility had occurred to them, they would certainly have regarded the question of whether such orders should be made by Congress or by some bureaucratic agency as a secondary issue. They would easily understand that state control of business is ultimately incompatible with any form of constitutional and democratic government.
- -In Germany and Russia, nothing would have changed if Hitler and Stalin had to submit their decisions for approval to the “parliaments”. With state control over business, parliaments can be nothing more than a collection of people always voting yes.
- - Medieval feudalism was an attempt to organize the administration of large territories without bureaucracy and bureaucratic methods. These efforts have been a complete failure. They led to anarchy and the complete disintegration of political unity.
- -Thus, the capitalist system of production is an economic democracy, where every cent gives the right to vote.
- -The ledgers and balance sheets are the conscience of the business. It is also the businessman’s compass.
- - The rule of law means that neither a judge nor any official has the right to interfere in the affairs and circumstances of a private citizen’s life, unless the current law requires them to do so or gives them the authority to do so. Nulla poena sine lege - “No punishment except as authorized by law.”
- - A bureaucratic institution is not a profit-seeking enterprise; it cannot use any economic calculations; it must solve problems that do not face commercial management. There can be no question of improving bureaucratic management by reorganizing it along the lines of private business. It would be a mistake to judge the effectiveness of a government agency by comparing it with the performance of an enterprise subject to the play of market forces.
- - In the public administration of any country, there are, of course, obvious shortcomings that catch the eye of any observer. Sometimes the degree of managerial inefficiency is simply astounding. But if you try to find the root causes of these shortcomings, you can often find that they are not at all the result of reprehensible carelessness or lack of competence. Sometimes they are the result of special political and institutional conditions or an attempt to resolve a problem for which no more satisfactory solution could be found.
- - It is amazing that Strezmann’s doctoral dissertation was devoted to the conditions of the bottled beer trade in Berlin. Considering how the study time schedule is built in German universities, it can be said with confidence that Strezmann devoted a significant part of his university works to studying the organization of beer sales and the state of consumption by the population. Such is the intellectual baggage with which Germany’s illustrious university system provided the man who became Reich Chancellor in the most critical years of German history.
- -Democracy is not a blessing that people can enjoy without any trouble. On the contrary, it is a treasure that must be defended daily and reconquered at the cost of strenuous efforts.
- - A distinctive feature of all modern communist parties is their support for the aggressive foreign policy of the USSR. Whatever they have to choose between the interests of Russia or their own country, they do not hesitate to prefer the interests of Russia.
- -Whatever country Stalin captured, the communists justified this aggression by the need to defend against “fascism”.
- -Today, as after the First World War, the real threat to the West is not Russia’s military power. Great Britain can easily repel a Russian attack, and starting a war against the United States would be pure madness for the Russians. Not Russian armies, but communist ideology threatens the West. The Russians are well aware of this and rely not on their own army, but on their foreign associates. They want to overthrow democracy from within, not from without.
- - Estonia or Lithuania threatened Russia no less than Luxenburg or Denmark-Germany.
- -Communist writers and politicians in Russia and elsewhere explain Russia’s aggressive policy as a need for self-defense. It is not Russia that is planning the attack, they say, but, on the contrary, the decaying capitalist democracies. Russia just wants to protect its own independence. This is an old, tried and tested method of justifying aggression. Louis XIV and Napoleon I, Wilhelm II and Hitler were the most ardent supporters of peace. When they invaded other countries, it was only for fair self-defense.
- - The political independence of Russia’s small neighbors, this legend argues, is just a temporary capitalist ploy to protect European democracies from being infected by the germs of communism. Consequently, it is concluded that these small countries have lost their right to independence. For Russia has an inalienable right to demand that her neighbors - and also the neighbors of her neighbors - be governed only by “friendly”, that is, directly communist governments. What would happen to the world if all the great powers had such claims?
- -On the other hand, it is pure cretinism to praise totalitarian regimes for alleged achievements that have nothing to do with their political and economic principles. Observations that trains on the railroads actually ran on schedule in Fascist Italy, or that the number of bedbugs in second-rate hotels has decreased, are not entirely reliable, but in any case they have nothing to do with the problem of fascism.
- - The biological “equipment” of a person very severely limits the scope of his activity. People who have the ability to think for themselves are separated by an unbridgeable gulf from people who do not.
