There are thousands of people around the world wishing to live in the average American household, where bread is just a fraction of one's income instead of the day's main objective. What is it about the First World that allows its citizens such luxury, writes Jonathan M. Finegold Catalan.

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Steven Ng.

Men are always forced to choose between satisfaction in nearer and remoter periods of the future. We cannot even think of a world in which originary interest would not exist as an element in every action, writes Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

As the economic aspect of state absolutism, mercantilism was of necessity a system of state-building, of big government, of heavy royal expenditure, of high taxes, of (especially after the late 17th century) inflation and deficit finance, of war, imperialism, and the aggrandizing of the nation-state, writes Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

While Montaigne paved the way for the dominance of absolutist thought in France, surely the founder or at least the locus classicus of 16th-century French absolutism was Jean Bodin (1530–96), writes Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

We, this satirical and heretical dystopian futurist book, ends by resolving whether or not the protagonist can find penultimate happiness in the cocoon of the One State even as his lover faces execution.

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by the author.

It is a favorite conceit of modern, 20th-century liberals that skepticism, the attitude that nothing can really be known as the truth, is the best groundwork for individual liberty, writes Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

In a few short hours, I was assaulted ten times with the demand that I display social consciousness. Can we all please cut the sham and go back to plain old buying and selling? Why blur the distinction between the commerce and charity?

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Steven Ng.

The overall view of Botero is that the morality and justification for actions of the prince are diametrically opposed to the principles that must guide the ordinary citizen, writes Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

Machiavelli was reviled throughout Europe during the 16th century and on into the next two centuries. He was considered to be a conscious preacher of evil, a diabolic figure who had unleashed the demons in the world of politics, writes Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.

Even Marx did not contest the fact that private initiative and private ownership of the means of production were indispensable stages in the progress from primitive man's penury to the more satisfactory conditions of the 19th century, writes Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973).

This audio Mises Daily is narrated by Jeff Riggenbach.