Servile labour disappeared because it could not stand the competition of free labour; its un-profitability sealed its doom in the market economy.
Ludwig von MisesIf the present American laws concerning the taxation of the profits of corporations, the incomes of individuals, and inheritances had been introduced about 60 years ago, all those new products whose consumption has raised the standard of living of the 'common man' would either not be produced at all or only in small quantities for the benefit of a minority. The Ford enterprises would not exist if Henry Ford's profits had been taxed away as soon as they came into being.
Ludwig von MisesThere is no western, capitalistic country in which the conditions of the masses have not improved in an unprecedented way.
Ludwig von MisesThe policy of letting the free market determine the height of wage rates is the only reasonable and successful full-employment policy.
Ludwig von MisesIf you give the government the right to determine the consumption of the human body, to determine whether one should smoke or not smoke, drink or not drink, there is no good reply you can give to people who say, More important than the body is the mind and the soul, and man hurts himself much more by reading bad books, by listening to bad music and looking at bad movies. Therefore it is the duty of the government to prevent people from committing those faults. And, as you know, for many hundreds of years governments and authorities velieved that it was their duty.
Ludwig von MisesWhat is called economic progress is the joint effect of the activities of the three progressive groups-or classes-of the savers, the scientist-inventors, and the entrepreneurs, operating in a market economy as far as it is not sabotaged by the endeavors of the nonprogressive majority of the routinists and the public policies supported by them.
Ludwig von Mises