"Machines will stop spitting cash. It will be the end of the world."
--Julie Steinhardt (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps)
Under conditions of threat, people restrict information flow and centralize decision-making. This plays into the hands of statists. Instigate fear and government becomes more powerful as people turn to the state for protection. Both Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt clearly learned this lesson well.
Some current myths designed to instigate fear and increase state power:
Enemies of the United States will kill us if we don't take pre-emptive military action.
The economy is finished if people cease to borrow and spend.
Man is causing a global warming with dire consequences.
Producers, not consumers, are the controlling force of capitalism.
Without state-run schooling, many children would not be educated.
Failure to bail out big banks in times of crisis would mean the end of the world.
Permitting gay marriage destroys the fabric of society.
A strong military is necessary for peace.
The poor get poorer when markets are free.
Economic growth will not occur unless money is printed out of thin air.
Illegal immigrants are stealing American jobs.
People will not choose to voluntarily help those at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
Terrorism must be stopped 'over there.'
Backing a currency with gold restricts standard of living for the masses.
Without a federal government of present size and scope, there would be no order.
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Minds that are ill at ease are agitated by both hope and fear.
~Ovid
Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man. This is no accident. The inherent difficulties of the subject would be great enough in any case, but they are multiplied a thousandfold by a factor that is insignificant in, say, physics, mathematics or medicine - the special pleading of selfish interests.
In addition to these endless pleadings of self-interest, there is a second main factor that spawns new economic fallacies every day. This is the persistent tendency of man to see only the immediate effects of a given policy, or its effects only on a special group, and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be not only on that special group but on all groups. It is the fallacy of overlooking secondary consequences.
~Henry Hazlitt
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