On democracy

In a recent interview, Hans-Hermann Hoppe — the author of the forthcoming The Great Fiction: Property, Economy, Society and the Politics of Decline — explained: “... it is democracy that is causally responsible for the fatal conditions afflicting us now. The number of productive people is constantly decreasing, and the number of people parasitically consuming the income and wealth of this dwindling number of productive people is increasing steadily. This can’t work in the long run.” Democracy is just a wealth-distribution (and ultimately wealth- destruction) scheme that pits the taxpayers vs. the tax eaters. In the case of Europe, Germany and the Netherlands produce and save, while Greece, Spain, Portugal and the rest consume. Eventually, a bankruptcy will bring to light the truth about democracy, which, Hoppe explains: “...is nothing more than an especially insidious form of communism, and that the politicians who have wrought this immoral and economic madness and who have thereby enriched themselves personally (never, of course, being liable for the damages they have caused!), are nothing more than a despicable bunch of communist crooks.” Democracy, simply, in Hoppe’s view, decivilizes society. Civilized people save and plan so as to take care of themselves and their families in the present and future. Fiscal conservatism and prudence is valued in a nondemocratic society, as are sound ethics. Democracy undoes the tendency for people to act cooperatively and responsibly. Politicians constantly look to appease voters with more benefits to care for them from cradle to grave, so as to win the next election. At the same time, the bureaucracy that hands out the benefits grows larger and larger and is unaccountable to anyone — especially voters. As the old saying goes, “No matter who wins, the government is always elected.” In order to distribute these benefits, the government must violate property rights. Government produces nothing; it must take from one group in order to give to another. Hoppe makes the case that individuals are powerless to protect themselves from government theft and view taxation as they would natural disasters. This alters the behavior of producers, who will tend to be less future-oriented, given that government is constantly stealing from them. This continuous theft, overtly through taxation and subversively by way of inflation, raises the producers’ time preferences, and they divert resources from producing future goods to present consumption. Over time, democracy leads to a lower level of capital being accumulated. With less capital, society is not only poorer, but less civilized. In Democracy: The God That Failed, Hoppe explains: “if government property-rights violations take their course and grow extensive enough, the natural tendency of humanity to build an expanding stock of capital and durable consumer goods and to become increasingly more farsighted and provide for evermore distant goals may not only come to a standstill, but may be reversed by a tendency toward decivilization: Formerly provident providers will be turned into drunks or daydreamers, adults into children, civilized men into barbarians and producers into criminals.” So what has kept this destructive force — democracy — alive for so long? Ironically, capitalism. Hoppe responds: “That the whole democratic house of cards has not yet completely collapsed speaks volumes about the still tremendous creative power of capitalism, even in the face of ever-increasing governmental strangulation. And this fact also allows us to conjecture about what economic ‘miracles’ would be possible if we had unimpeded capitalism liberated from such parasitism.” So many people mistakenly tie democracy and capitalism together, when in fact democracy keeps capitalism from making all producers prosperous. Laissez-faire is not a matter of electing the right person; it means simply “leave it alone,” something politicians cannot seem to do.