It is not the fault of the entrepreneurs that the consumers,the people, the common man,prefer liquor to Bibles and detective stories to serious books, and that governments prefer guns to butter. The entrepreneur does not make greater profits in selling bad things than in selling good things. His profits are the greater the better he succeeds in providing the consumers with those things they ask for most intensely.
Ludwig von MisesIf history could teach us anything, it would be that private property is inextricably linked with civilization.
Ludwig von MisesThe boom squanders through malinvestment scarce factors of production and reduces the stock available through overconsumption; its alleged blessings are paid for by impoverishment.
Ludwig von MisesThe market economy is the social system of the division of labor under private ownership of the means of production. Everybody acts on his own behalf; but everybodys actions aim at the satisfaction of other peoples needs as well as at the satisfaction of his own. Everybody in acting serves his fellow citizens.
Ludwig von MisesCredit expansion can bring about a temporary boom. But such a fictitious prosperity must end in a general depression of trade, a slump.
Ludwig von Mises