The Determination of Value

The Determination of Value The above thought will only confirm in the minds of many the necessity for the continued exercise of the principle of violence. This is true because most of these governmental activities can be maintained only under vio lence. Thus, under freedom of choice, many activities that different individuals think good, necessary, and valuable, would be dropped. But value, it has been conclusively proved, can be determined only by free market processes, not by the enforced will of one, or by any other authori tarian arrangements. * As violence begets violence within nations, so does its existence within nations also beget violence between na tions. War - violence on a vast scale - can originate only with people who practice violence themselves. What, for instance, is the difference in principle between plunder ing a portion of Joe Doake's egg money and taking the life of a Japanese, a German, or a Russian? One does vio lence to that which sustains life. The other does violence to life. One is indirect, the other direct. The difference is in *Ludwig von Mises, Human Action (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1949).

23 degree, not in kind. Persons who will advocate the one have no way, logically, of not advocating or condoning the other. People of violence will make wars and destroy themselves. This need not be written in the future tense. People of violence are making wars and are destroying themselves. Minor Violence Leads to Major Violence There is another way to demonstrate the inevitability of seemingly minor violences leading to major violence. Responsibility and authority go hand in hand. If, for ex ample, you accept the financial responsibility for a wid owed sister you assume a commensurate authority over her expenditures, or risk bankruptcy. It is no different in society. When we as citizens turn over to the state an item in the responsibility for our welfare, the state as sumes a proportionate authority over our lives. Thus, as we turn over to the state item after item of our own welfare responsibilities, we eventually arrive at the all responsible state. When we reach this point we will have over us, ipso facto, the all-authoritarian state. At the head of this state will be a gangster, a craftsman in violence, by reason of the nature of the job to be done: administering violence. Authoritarian states are, of necessity, headed by tyrants. Tyrants make wars. Logic says that they must.