This document provides biographical information on influential classical liberal thinkers Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. It discusses their major works and key ideas. Hayek focused on topics like spontaneous order, the limits of knowledge and planning, and the importance of the rule of law and individual liberty. Mises wrote extensively on economics, socialism, and interventionism. He emphasized the role of consumers in a market economy and that government intervention inevitably leads to distortion. The document also briefly discusses other classical liberals like Adam Smith, their works, and some of their central ideas around free markets, private property and limited government.

1. HAYEK, MISES, AND LIBERALISM
THROUGHOUT HISTORY
Bienvenido Oplas Jr.
Pres., Minimal Government Thinkers
Columnist, BusinessWorld, “My Cup of Liberty”
Students for Liberty Philippines (SFL PH) Lectures
Roots Katipunan, Quezon City
June 16, 2018

2. Outline
I. Hayek
II. Mises
III. Classical liberals: Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John
Locke
IV. Pre-classical: Lao Tzu
V. Recent liberals
VI. Bonus

3. 2005, “The Constitution of Liberty in Asia”
I participated in a roundtable discussion whole day about Hayek’s book in, Phuket,
Thailand. Sponsored by the Atlas Economic Research Foundation (now ―Atlas
Network‖) and Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF). Moderated by
modern classical liberal scholar, Leonard Liggio (RIP) of Atlas.
"Liberty is essential in order
to leave room for the
unforeseeable and
unpredictable. Because
every individual knows so
little that we trust the
independent and
competitive efforts of many
to induce the emergence of
what we shall want when we
see it.―
-- The Constitution of Liberty
(TCL), Ch. 2
I. Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992)

4. Several chapters of TCL
were discussed in my e-book,
Liberalism, Rule of Law and Civil Society
Published by FNF Philippines, September 2014
And mentioned in my Chapter Contribution,
Why Liberty
Edited by Marc Guttman
FR33MINDS.COM, November 2010

5. Friedrich A Hayek
Prolific writer, author of many books, manuscripts
A. Economic papers
1931. “Prices and Production”. London: Routledge & Sons. Second revised
edition, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1935.
1933a. “Monetary Theory and the Trade Cycle”. London: Jonathan Cape.
1933b. "The Trend of Economic Thinking." Economica 13: 121-37.
Reprinted in Hayek, 1991, pp. 17-34.
1937. "Economics and Knowledge." Economica N.S. 4: 33-54. Reprinted in
Hayek, 1948a, pp. 33-56.
1939. "Price Expectations, Monetary Disturbances, and Malinvestments."
In Hayek, Profits, Interest, and Investment. London: Routledge and Kegan
Paul, pp. 135-56.
1941. The Pure Theory of Capital. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

6. ―The problem of a rational economic order is determined
precisely by the fact that the knowledge of the
circumstances of which we must make use never exists
in concentrated or integrated form but solely as the
dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory
knowledge which all the separate individuals possess.‖
1963. "The Economics of the 1930s as Seen from
London."
"Personal Recollections of Keynes and the 'Keynesian
Revolution.'"
1968a. "Competition as a Discovery Procedure.“
1974. “The Pretence of Knowledge”
Nobel Prize lecture, December 11, 1974
―To act on the belief that we possess the knowledge and the power which enable
us to shape the processes of society entirely to our liking, knowledge which in fact
we do not possess, is likely to make us do much harm.
―If man is not to do more harm than good in his efforts to improve the social order,
he will have to learn that in this,… he cannot acquire the full knowledge which
would make mastery of the events possible.‖ -- The Pretence of Knowledge

7. 1975. "Two Types of Mind." In Hayek, The Trend of Economic Thinking. Edited by
W. W. Bartley III and Stephen Kresge. Vol. 3 of The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek.
1976. Denationalisation of Money : An Analysis of the Theory and Practice of
Concurrent Currencies. London: Institute of Economic Affairs.
1978a. "Coping with Ignorance." Imprimis 7, no. 7 (July): 1-6. Reprinted in
Champions of Freedom. Hillsdale, Mich.: Hillsdale College Press, 1979.
1978b. New Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
1991. The Trend of Economic Thinking: Essays on Political Economists and
Economic History. Edited by W. W. Bartley III and Stephen Kresge. Chicago.
1992. The Fortunes of Liberalism. Ed. Peter G. Klein. Vol. 4,
Collected Works of Hayek.

8. B. Political papers
1944. The Road to Serfdom.
Chicago: University of Chicago
Press.
1945. "The Use of Knowledge
in Society." American Economic
Review 35, 519-30.
1948a. Individualism and
Economic Order. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
1948b. "The Meaning of
Competition."
1952. The Sensory Order. An
Inquiry into the Foundations of
Theoretical Psychology.
Univ. of Chicago Press.
1956. "In Honour of Professor
Mises.".
The power which a multiple
millionaire, who may be my
neighbour and perhaps my
employer, has over me is
very much less than that
which the smallest
functionaire possesses who
wields the coercive power of
the state, and on whose
discretion it depends
whether and how I am to be
allowed to live or to work.‖

9. 1960. The Constitution of Liberty. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
1968b. "The Confusion of Language in
Political Thought."
1973-79. Law, Legislation, and Liberty.
Three volumes. University of Chicago
Press.
1988. The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of
Socialism. Edited by W. W. Bartley III. Vol.
1 of The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek.
U. of Chicago Press, 1989.
―The disdain of profit is due to ignorance, and to an attitude that
we may if we wish admire in the ascetic who has chosen to be
content with a small share of the riches of this world, but which,
when actualised in the form of restrictions on profits of others, is
selfish to the extent that it imposes asceticism, and indeed
deprivations of all sorts, on others. -- The Fatal Conceit

10. ―By ‗law‘ we mean the general rules that apply equally to everybody… Even general,
abstract rules, equally applicable to all, may possibly constitute restrictions on liberty.
But this is unlikely. The chief safeguard is that the rules must apply to those who lay
them down and those who apply—that is, to the government as well as the governed
– and that nobody has the power to grant exceptions.‖ -- TCL, Ch. 10
―In the long run, the existence of groups
ahead of the rest is clearly an advantage of
those who are behind, in the same way
that, if we could suddenly draw on the more
advanced knowledge which some other
men on a previously unknown continent or
on another planet had gained under more
favorable conditions, we would all profit
greatly.‖ -- TCL, Ch. 3
―The great aim of the struggle for liberty
has been equality before the law… Equality
of the general rules of law and conduct,
however, is the only kind of equality
conducive to liberty and the only equality
which we can secure without destroying
liberty… bound to produce inequality in
many respects.― -- TCL, Ch.6

11. ―The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men
how little they really know about what they imagine they can
design... Planning leads to dictatorship because dictatorship
is the most effective instrument of coercion and the
enforcement of ideals and, as such, essential if central
planning on a large scale is to be possible.‖-- FH, The Fatal
Conceit
―Progress by its very
nature cannot be
planned. It is knowing
what we have not
known before that
makes us wiser men...
Progress is movement
for progress‘ sake, for
it is in the process of
learning, and in the
effects of having
learned something
new, that man enjoys
the gift of his
intelligence.‖
-- FH, TCL, Chapter 3

12. ―To act on the belief that we possess the knowledge and the power which enable us
to shape the processes of society entirely to our liking, knowledge which in fact we
do not possess, is likely to make us do much harm.‖
— FH, ―The Pretence of Knowledge,‖ Nobel Prize lecture, Dec. 11, 1974.

13. II. Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973)
Theory of Money and Credit (1912)
―The great inflations of our age are not acts of
God. They are man-made or, to say it bluntly,
government-made. They are off-shoots of
doctrines that ascribe to governments the magic
power creating wealth out of nothing and of
making people happy by raising the ‗national
income‘.‖ – Preface to the new edition, 1952
Socialism: An Economic and Sociological
Analysis (1922; US translation 1936)
Liberalism: The Classical Tradition (1927)
Critique of Interventionism (1929)
Omnipotent Government (1944)
Bureaucracy (1944)

14. Human Action: A Treatise on Economics (1949)
―The ultimate goal of human action is always the satisfaction of
the acting man's desire. There is no standard of greater or lesser
satisfaction other than individual judgments of value, different for
various people and for the same people at various times. What
makes a man feel uneasy and less uneasy is established by him
from the standard of his own will and judgment, from his
personal and subjective valuation. Nobody is in a position to
decree what should make a fellow man happier.‖
– Part 1, Chapter 1, p.14.
The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality (1956)
"The characteristic feature of modern capitalism is mass
production of goods destined for consumption by the masses.
The result is a tendency towards a continuous improvement in
the average standard of living…
the market of a capitalistic society, the common man is the
sovereign consumer whose buying or abstention from buying
ultimately determines what should be produced and in what
quantity and quality...
Wealth can be acquired only by serving the consumers. The
capitalists lose their funds as soon as they fail to invest them in
those lines in which they satisfy best the demands of the public.‖

15. Historical Setting of the Austrian School of Economics (1969)
Epistemological Problems of Economics
An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution
Planned Chaos
Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth
Marxism Unmasked: From Delusion to Destruction (1952)

16. ―The consumers
force all those
engaged in
production to
comply with their
orders…. It makes
competition work.
He who best
serves the
consumers profits
most and
accumulates
riches.
- LVM, Economic
Freedom and
Interventionism
(1990).
―The real bosses, in the capitalist system of market
economy, are the consumers… The entrepreneur
profits to the extent he has succeeded in serving the
consumers better than other people have done.‖
— LVM, Bureaucracy

17. Social application: For every
government intervention and
taxation, there is an equal
opposite distortion. (see quote
from Mises)

18. T. Hobbes: “where every man is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the
time, wherein men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their
own invention shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place for Industry;
… and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of
man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.” -- Leviathan (1651), Chapter 13.
J. Locke: “The great and chief end, therefore, of men uniting into commonwealths, and
putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property; to which in
the state of Nature there are many things wanting…”
-- Two Treatises on Government (1680-1690), Book II, Chapter 9
J.J. Rousseau: “Every man having been born free and master of himself, no one else may
under any pretext whatever subject him without his consent. To assert that the son of a
slave is born a slave is to assert that he is not born a man.”
-- The Social Contract (1762)
‘Social Contract’
Theoreticians
(or why government was created)
From left: : Thomas Hobbes,
John Locke,
Jean Jacques Rousseau.

19. The Second Law Of Nature... ―That a man be willing, when others are so too,
as farre-forth, as for Peace, and defence of himselfe he shall think it
necessary, to lay down this right to all things; and be contented with so much
liberty against other men, as he would allow other men against himselfe.‖
- Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651), Chapter 14, ―Of the First and Second
Naturall Lawes, and of Contracts‖
3. ―Whenever
possible, go outside
the expertise of the
enemy.‖
5. ―Ridicule is man’s
most potent weapon.‖
6. ―A good tactic is
one your people
enjoy.‖
7. ―A tactic that drags
on too long becomes a
drag.‖
9. ―The threat is
usually more terrifying
than the thing itself.‖
- Saul Alinsky, Rules
for Radicals (1971).

20. ―The man of system…is apt to be very wise in his own conceit;
and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his
own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the
smallest deviation from any part of it… He seems to imagine
that he can arrange the different members of a great society
with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces
upon a chess-board. He does not consider that in the great
chess-board of human society, every single piece has a
principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that
which the legislature might choose to impress upon it.‖
III. Classical Liberals: Adam Smith
The whole, or almost the whole public revenue, is in most countries
employed in maintaining unproductive hands... Such people, as they
themselves produce nothing, are all maintained by the produce of
other men's labour... Those unproductive hands, who should be
maintained by a part only of the spare revenue of the people, may
consume so great a share of their whole revenue… all the frugality
and good conduct of individuals may not be able to compensate the
waste and degradation of produce occasioned by this violent and
forced encroachment.
-- The Wealth of Nations (TWN) (1776), Book II, Chapter III
-- Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS)
(1759), Part VI, Section II, Chapter II.

21. “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the
brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner,
but from their regard to their own interest. We
address ourselves, not to their humanity but to
their self-love, and never talk to them of our
necessities but of their advantages.”
-- TWN, Book I Chapter II
“In the midst of all the exactions of government,
capital has been silently and gradually accumulated
by the private frugality and good conduct of
individuals, by their universal, continual, and
uninterrupted effort to better their own condition. It
is this effort, protected by law and allowed by
liberty to exert itself....“
“Every individual...generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public
interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it…. he intends only his own
gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to
promote an end which was no part of his intention.”
–TWN (1776), Book IV Chapter II

22. In a free trade, an
effectual combination
cannot be established but
by the unanimous
consent of every single
trader, and it cannot last
longer than every single
trader continues of the
same mind.
- TWN, Bk IV Ch VIII.
―There is no art which one
government sooner learns
of another than that of
draining money from the
pockets of the people.‖
- TWN, Bk V, Ch II,
Appendix to Articles I & II.
―How selfish soever man may be
supposed, there are evidently some
principles in his nature, which interest
him in the fortune of others, and
render their happiness necessary to
him, though he derives nothing from it,
except the pleasure of seeing it.‖
- TMS, Part I, Sec I, Ch I

23. ―According to the system of natural liberty, the sovereign has only three
duties to attend to; three duties of great importance, indeed, but plain and
intelligible to common understandings: first, the duty of protecting the society
from violence and invasion of other independent societies; secondly, the duty
of protecting, as far as possible, every member of the society from the
injustice or oppression of every other member of it, or the duty of establishing
an exact administration of justice; and, thirdly, the duty of erecting and
maintaining certain public works and certain public institutions which it can
never be for the interest of any individual, or small number of individuals, to
erect and maintain...‖
-- AS, The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book IV, Chapter IX, Paragraph 51

24. Classical Liberals: David Ricardo (1772-1823)
* Became interested in economics when he read Adam Smith’s TWN in 1799.
* The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817)
* First pamphlet, The High Price of Bullion a Proof of the Depreciation of Bank Notes
(1810)
* Labor theory of value. the rate of profit for society as a whole depends on the
amount of labor necessary to support the workers who farm "the most barren land
that can still maintain agriculture"
* Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock (1815)
Under a system of perfectly free commerce, each country naturally devotes its
capital and labour to such employments as are most beneficial to each. By
rewarding ingenuity… it distributes labour most effectively and most economically:
while, by increasing the general mass of productions, it diffuses general benefit…
-- David Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817)

25. ―For in the state of Nature to omit the liberty he has of innocent delights, a man has
two powers...
―The first power -- viz., of doing whatsoever he thought fit for the preservation of
himself and the rest of mankind, he gives up to be regulated by laws made by the
society...
―Secondly, the power of punishing he wholly gives up, and engages his natural force,
which he might before employ in the execution of the law of Nature, by his own single
authority, as he thought fit, to assist the executive power of the society as the law
thereof shall require.
-- John Locke, Two Treatises of Government (1680-1690), Book II, Chapter 9, ―Of the
Ends of Political Society and Government,‖
Classical Liberals:
John Locke
(1632-1704)

26. ―The animals you eat are not those who devour others; you do not eat the
carnivorous beasts, you take them as your pattern. You only hunger for the sweet
and gentle creatures which harm no one, which follow you, serve you, and are
devoured by you as the reward of their service.‖
— Jean-Jacques Rousseau (French philosopher, 1700s)
―Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the
lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice:
all the rest bring about by the natural course of things.‖
— Adam Smith, lecture in 1755; author of The Wealth of Nations (1776)

27. (From left: G. Washington, Tacitus,
Einstein)
Government is not reason; it is not
eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a
dangerous servant and a fearful master.
– George Washington
The more numerous the laws, the more
corrupt the society. - Tacitus
"Never do anything against conscience
even if the State demands it." – A.Einstein
―It is vain to talk of the
interest of the community,
without understanding what
is the interest of the
individual.‖
-- Jeremy Bentham (1748-
1834, English philosopher,
economist, pioneered
utilitarianism)

28. IV. Pre-classical
Lao Tzu (600 BC)
• ―The more restrictions and limitations there are, the
more impoverished men will be... The more rules
and precepts are enforced, the more bandits and
crooks will be produced.‖
• ―Through my non-action, men are spontaneously
transformed. Through my quiescence, men
spontaneously become tranquil. Through my non-
interference, men spontaneously increase their
wealth.‖
―The people are hungry: It is because those in authority eat up too much in
taxes. When the government is too intrusive, people lose their spirit.‖
— Lao Tzu, or Laozi (6th-5th century BC)

29. ―When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that the old source
is abandoned. It merely means that the politicians have two ways of milking the taxpayer
where they had one before.‖ - H. L. Mencken, American journalist, satirist
―It is hard to imagine a
more stupid or more
dangerous way of
making decisions than
by putting those
decisions in the hands
of people who pay no
price
for being wrong.‖
- Thomas Sowell, US
economist, pol
philosopher
A little government and a little luck are necessary in
life, but only a fool trusts either of them.
-- P. J. O'Rourke.
Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money
from poor people in rich countries to rich people in
poor countries. - Doug Casey
V. Recent Liberals

30. ―The income tax created
more criminals than any
other single act of
government.‖ -- Barry
Goldwater (US
businessman, 5-term
senator)
―The difference between
death and taxes is death
doesn’t get worse every
time Congress meets.‖ --
Will Rogers (US actor,
humorist, columnist)
―The permanent misfits can find
salvation only in a complete
separation from the self; and they
usually find it by losing
themselves in the compact
collectivity of a mass movement.‖
-- Eric Hoffer, The True Believer:
Thoughts on the Nature of Mass
Movements (1951)
―Never attempt to win by force what can be won by
deception. ...he who seeks to deceive will always find
someone who will allow himself to be deceived…
―Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated
by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will
always find plenty who are ready to be deceived.‖ --
Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (1513)

32. ―Government does not tax to get
the money it needs; government
always finds a need for the money
it gets.‖
- Ronald Reagan, former US Pres.
―The problem is not that the
people are taxed too little. The
problem is that government
spends too much.‖
— former US President Ronald
Reagan
―I hope we once again have
reminded people that man is not
free unless government is limited.
There’s a clear cause and effect
here that is as neat and predictable
as a law of physics: as government
expands, liberty contracts.‖
-- Ronald Reagan, former US
President

33. ―We want a society where people are free
to make choices, to make mistakes, to be
generous and compassionate. This is what
we mean by a moral society; not a society
where the state is responsible for
everything, and no one is responsible for
the state.‖
―Government does not tax to get
the money it needs; government
always finds a need for the money
it gets.‖
- Ronald Reagan, former US Pres.
―The problem is not that the
people are taxed too little. The
problem is that government
spends too much.‖
— former US President Ronald
Reagan

34. VI. Bonus
Welfarism:
Promise (above) vs
Reality (below)
"Every time the
government attempts to
handle our affairs, it costs
more and the results are
worse than if we had
handled them ourselves."
-- Benjamin Constant
(1767-1830), Swiss-born
French politician

35. It will not be
surprising if Apple,
Samsung, Google,
Microsoft,
McDonalds, Toyota,
Shangri-la, other big
global brands will
put up offices and
factories in North
Korea.
North-South Korea
reunification as one
country like the
East-West Germany
reunification,
desirable? No.
Two separate
countries linked by
heavy commerce
and investments,
like Malaysia-
Singapore.