Question:
At least during the last two hundred years, we have seen in the world a spectacular increase in the quality of life, thanks to capitalism. However, during the same period, we have also seen an amazing growth of the State. How could this apparent paradox be explained?
Walter Block:
The state is an impediment to growth. We achieve prosperity despite it, not because of it. At present, our GDP statistics include government expenditures. Murray Rothbard rightly contended that these payments should be subtracted from private sector goods and services, not added to them. The capitalist system is so productive that our natural statist instincts promote it, as we become richer, we can more and more afford it.
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Reviving a Dead Religion Once Known as ‘Judaism’
