I Chose Liberty - Ludwig von Mises Institute

James V. Schall 315
including visits to his home, meetings with him in his office at Brooklyn Polytechnic
Institute, and arranging for him to address the graduate economics faculty and students at
Rutgers. Rothbard also encouraged me to write a review essay on David Friedman’s book,
The Machinery of Freedom, for The Libertarian Forum, and this became my first publication.
Thus when I disembarked from Don Lavoie’s car in South Royalton, Vermont in June 1974
to attend the first Austrian economics conference to be convened in the United States, I,
like Don and most of the other attendees, had arrived by way of Murray Rothbard.
Joseph T. Salerno is professor of economics at Pace University, editor of the Quarterly Journal of
Austrian Economics, and academic vice president at the Mises Institute.
65
JAMES V. SCHALL
CONFESSIONS OF A PRACTICING “SOCIALIST”
Socialists are collectivist in their proposals. But they are Communist in
their idealism. Now there is a real pleasure in sharing. We have all felt it
in the case of nuts off a tree or the National Gallery, or such things. But
it is not the only pleasure nor the only altruistic pleasure, nor (I think) the
highest or most human of altruistic pleasures. I greatly prefer the pleasure
of giving and receiving. Giving is not the same as sharing: giving is even
the opposite of sharing. Sharing is based on the idea that there is no property,
or at least no personal property. But giving a thing to another man
is as much based on personal property as keeping it to yourself.
~ G.K. Chesterton, ”Why I Am Not a Socialist” (1908)
When I am asked, “how does capitalism work?”, I like to recount something I read in
Andrew Beyer, the turf commentator for The Washington Post (June 20, 2003). Beyer had
noted the sudden increase in interest in thoroughbred racing after the surprising run of
Funny Cide in the first two legs of the Triple Crown (2003). Some 101,864 fans showed
up on a terribly rainy and chilly day for the Belmont Stakes, the third event of the series,
the chance for the first winner of the three races—the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, the
Belmont—in over a quarter century. Track owners naturally have been seeking to capitalize
on this increased interest in racing. They see it as a way both to help the business and to
make a profit. They are legitimate capitalists using their minds to expand their business.
But how to make it work is also a legitimate and essential capitalist question.