Why Government Isn’t Like Other Institutions

Many on the left and right speak about the government as if it’s equivalent to a business. This rhetoric, deployed to justify the seizure of productive capital or make the state “more efficient,” obscures the fact that business and government are fundamentally different.

The following article was originally published by the Mises Institute. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Peter Schiff or SchiffGold.

“If human equality is to be forever averted—if the High, as we have called them, are to keep their places permanently—then the prevailing mental condition must be controlled insanity.”—George Orwell, 1984

“In contrast to all other thinkers, left, right, or in-between, the libertarian refuses to give the State the moral sanction to commit actions that almost everyone agrees would be immoral, illegal, and criminal if committed by any person or group in society.”—Murray Rothbard, For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto