Hello everyone. Today's post will be part of a series that will breakdown the book, Democracy the God That Failed. This book is highly recommended by Tom Woods. Tom Woods is the author of Meltdown, a look at some of the causes of the 2008 Market Crash, as well as a host to his Libertarian Podcast, The Tom Woods Show. This is an interesting book that I had not heard of until Tom Woods spoke about it. It is a look at the Economics and Politics of Monarchy, Democracy, and Natural Order. Lets continue on to Chapter 3 titled: On Monarchy, Democracy, Public Opinion, and Delegitimation.
Hoppe begins by explaining how President Abraham Lincoln changed the fate of the United States after the Civil War. After the North was victorious, the Southern Confederacy could no longer secede from Union. Democracy now meant absolute and unlimited majority rule. Compulsory membership now existed in the United States. Fast forward to today in history, and you can see the decline in liberalism (classical) and the dominance in anti-capitalist political ideologies in this century of socialism, social democracy, democratic capitalism, social market economics, or whatever other label has been attached to these anti-liberal programs and policies.
Without a right to secession, a democratic government is a compulsory territory that has a monopoly of protection and ultimate decision making (jurisdiction). On top of this power is the right to tax. This leads to the benefit of overspending, with the benefit of liability being shifted over to the public via bailouts, inflation, and more taxes. This leads to government debt that exceeds that when compared to a king taxing his people. Democratic officials can easily increase their money supply and present day purchasing power at the expense of future generations when those officials are no longer in office. They are essentially "selling out" the unborn for the their gains today. This means that monetary inflation is more prevalent under democracy that under king's rule (monarchy).
Under democracy, "the notion of universal and immutable human rights and in particular of property rights essentially disappears and is replaced by that of law as government-made legislation and rights as government-given grants." Democratic officials can essentially alter laws in their favor or in favor of those who pledge loyalty to them (campaign donors, dark money, lobbyists). Democratic officials can also make promises to redistribute wealth to their voters, essentially buying their votes and place in power in return for favors such as welfare, "free education", "free health care," etc. The people who do not have these benefits want these benefits and will vote for government that is willing to provide these "free" benefits at the expense of the taxpayer. This will lead to more and more "have nots" to vote for more and more government to offer these "free" benefits.
Do not be fooled by the word "free." There is no free lunch. All redistribution involves taking from an original owner/producer (the "haver") and giving it another non-owner/non-producer ("non-haver"). This decreases the incentive to be an owner/producer of the thing that is being reduced and the incentive to a non-owner and non-producer is increased. This form of Social Democracy will bring about social degeneration, corruption, and decay. This also leads to more officials who make more promises, leading to more bad, dangerous representatives into office.
Government debt has soared to unprecedented numbers and continues to rise. Central bankers have been successful in getting gold replaced by government manufactured paper as money, and its value continues to dwindle. Every detail of private life, property, trade, and contract is regulated by ever higher mountains of paper laws (legislation). The irony of it all is that government in the US was designed only to protect our life and property. Look at it all now.
The good news of it all is that each government can be brought down by a mere change of opinions and the exercise of sheer willpower. "For if tyranny really rests on mass consent, then the obvious means for it overthrow is simply mass withdrawal of that consent." It is only necessary to withdraw from the compulsory union and re-assume one's right to self protection. Keep as much of your own property as possible and pay as little tax as possible. "Even if liberty had entirely perished from the earth, such men would invent it. For them slavery has no satisfaction, no matter how well disguised." However, there could be no revolution without some form of mass participation and an elite group of leaders.
Well there you have it for now. Please let me know what you think and thank you for reading. I will see you again soon.