#aphet — Public Fediverse posts

"Chuang Tzu wrote, ‘The common people have a constant nature; they spin and are clothed, till and are fed... it is what may be called their “natural freedom”’. These people of natural freedom were born and died themselves, suffered from no restrictions or restraints, and were neither quarrelsome nor disorderly. If rulers were to establish rites and laws to govern the people, ‘it would indeed be no different from stretching the short legs of the duck and trimming off the long legs of the heron’ or ‘haltering a horse’. Such rules would not only be of no benefit, but would work great harm. In short, Chuang Tzu concluded, the world ‘does simply not need governing; in fact it should not be governed’." — Murray N. Rothbard.
#chuangtzu #rothbard #aphet #economics #history #naturallaw

"‘Mercantilism’ is the name given by late nineteenth century historians to the politico-economic system of the absolute state from approximately the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Mercantilism has been called by various historians or observers a ‘system of Power or State-building’ (Eli Heckscher), a system of systematic state privilege, particularly in restricting imports or subsidizing exports (Adam Smith), or a faulty set of economic theories, including protectionism and the alleged necessity for piling up bullion in a country. In fact, mercantilism was all of these things; it was a comprehensive system of statebuilding, state privilege, and what might be called ‘state monopoly capitalism’.", - Murray N.Rothbard.
#rothbard #aphet #statism #history #economics #mercantilism #capitalism