Governments are freely allowed to increase their already vast authority due to the popular assumption that increased governmental power more rapidly will bring solutions to human problems. But, the illusive goals now seem more remote than ever. Governments can, by decree, create temporary illusions of economic prosperity simply by manipulating the value of currency through inflation and interfering with the free market exchange of private enterprise. But the illusions of economic prosperity artificially produced by disrupting the basic laws of supply and demand are cruel indeed. Once the inflationary cycle has run its full course and currency becomes worthless, history amply indicates that the inevitable result can only be complete economic disaster and social upheaval.
Governments claim also to be the authors of civil order and social stability.
The theory is that more stringent laws and more vigorous law enforcement, when coupled with more equitable welfare programs, can produce more responsible citizens. However, history and statistics seem not to support this hypothesis either. On tile contrary, overt acts of passion and violence and especially crimes against private property have reached alarming and steadily increasing proportions. The trend toward the disregard for private property rights is world-wide. But the nations that are experiencing the most shocking increase in such crimes are the very nations that most enthusiastically have attempted to substitute government paternalism for individual responsibility.