Very chilling. Especially since I just heard on Lew Rockwell’s podcast that Nixon said he knew all about Emperor Diocletian’s failed wage and price control scheme, back before he was elected when he promised not to destroy the dollar. Politicians are so evil that they will deliberately embark on a policy which they know to be destructive and murderous, as long as it means they can keep and enhance their own power. This demonstrates the complete futility of attempting to engage any politician or bureaucrat in a discussion intended to make them understand and learn from Austrian economics, or even from the lessons of Bastiat or Adam Smith. They know and understand most of those lessons, but they just don’t care.

Another example is Alan Greenspan. He learned Austrian economics from Murray Rothbard, but not a damn bit of good did this do the American people (or the world) once he attained power. Winston Churchill read Adam Smith at the start of his political career, but that didn’t stop him from ordering the starvation of millions of Indians when it came to protecting the empire that Smith had conclusively proven was worthless and wealth-consuming for the majority of British people.

It is therefore a complete and utter waste of time to engage anyone in government in a discussion aimed at convincing them of the greater good to be achieved from following the lessons of human action. Education and understanding is no good whatsoever against the corrupting nature of power. If you meet a politician or bureaucrat, call them the thief and murderer that they are, if you can do so safely, or else simply treat them with the silent contempt that they deserve. Educate the victims, not the perpetrators.