Economy, Society, & History

Economy, Society, & History is a book written by German American economist and author Hans-Hermann Hoppe in 2021.

The book is an organized collection of ten lectures made by Hans-Hermann Hoppe in 2004 at the Mises Institute in Auburn, AL. Hoppe was invited by Lew Rockwell to speak at the Mises Institute and deliver the lectures in 2004. The text includes a wide variety of topics covered by Hoppe including: economics, sociology, history, anthropology, politics, and issues related to cronyism, imperialism, Hoppe's view of monarchy and democracy, and even a critique of the works of Milton Friedman and F.A. Hayek, whom Hoppe describes both men as, "...fundamentally and philosophically...statists" as well as "moderate free marketeers" whose work according to Hoppe, "...lends itself to...the continued and unabating power of the state."

The book elaborates further on some of the criticisms of democracy as first prominently advocated by Hoppe in Democracy: The God That Failed, an earlier book of Hoppe's from 2001.

Content
The book opens with a foreword written by Sean Gabb, as well as a preface by Hoppe himself in which Hoppe speaks to the unedited nature of the lectures in the written published version, Hoppe says:"My lectures were not based on a written text, but on notes, supplemented by only a few handouts. Hence, the somewhat informal tone of the following text and its occasional personal and conversational asides. Based on personal experience I do not expect this fact to diminish but rather to actually enhance the appeal and accessibility of the present work, however, and thus felt no need now for any stylistic changes."The series of lectures from Hans-Hermann Hoppe cover the following chapter by chapter: "Very old people are sometimes said to go through a 'second childhood.' ...assuming that they do not care for future generations, or perhaps they do not have offspring or any friends whom they want to hand over their own fortune to, and then, because their own remaining lifespan is very short, they have not much of a future left, so they go through the phase of a second childhood, by and large consuming and more or less entirely ceasing to accumulate savings."
 * Lecture 1: The Nature of Man and the Human Condition: Language, Property, and Production - In this lecture Hoppe outlines what the following lectures will discuss and makes some comments about his views on the nature of man or man in the absence of government intervention or involvement. Hoppe also says that "It is not possible that conflicts arise over things that are in superabundance." Or that conflict only occurs in the presence of resource scarcity. Given that resource scarcity is exacerbated by government bureaucrats, the avoidance of such bureaucracy is obviously ideal as advocated by Hoppe. Hoppe also says that "Men have no natural weapons with which to defend themselves, or nothing to speak of." and that, "...man needs culture in order to survive", and finally that the only tools that Hoppe says that mankind is born with are "...brains and hands..."
 * Lecture 2: The Spread of Humans around the World: The Extension and Intensification of the Division of Labor - In this lecture Hoppe discusses the spread of mankind out of Africa and through to the rest of the world, something he says there is "general agreement" on, "not complete agreement, but pretty much unanimous agreement, that mankind spread out from Africa..." Hoppe goes on to discuss how essentially human beings would not have anywhere near the current level of population without the development of agriculture. This also alludes to a later lecture of Hoppe's on the accumulation of capital being only possible once people settle down in one place, which Hoppe also says is only possible thanks to agricultural cultivation and the division of labor.
 * Lecture 3: Money and Monetary Integration: The Growth of Cities and the Globalization of Trade - In the third lecture from Hoppe, he discusses the natural and important development of cities over time, as people continue to become ever more specialized in the focus of their labor in the division involved in trade. Hoppe also says that sympathies towards one's fellow man does not come about from an inherent or innate love of one's fellow, but rather, "...sympathy results from, but is not the cause of, the division of labor." Hoppe believe that the nuclear family unit is essentially an outgrowth of this effective use of the division of labor, "...it is the recognition of the advantages of division of labor that makes stable family relationships, rather than people breaking up and going their own way." Hoppe believes that cities are the result of the efficiencies of the division of labor delivered at scale. Lastly, Hoppe touches on the importance of a universal commodity money, such as a gold standard or the direct use of gold or silver as essentially preferable in all ways over a fiat money currency issued and controlled by government.
 * Lecture 4: Time Preference, Capital, Technology, and Economic Growth - The fourth lecture in the series delivered by Hoppe focuses on the Austrian economics notions of time preference, and in particular, high time preference versus low time preference and why Hoppe and Austrian economists prefer low time preference over high. Hoppe says, "...all humans prefer present goods over future goods. But the degree to which people do this is different from individual to individual, and also from one specific group to another." Hoppe relates an example of elderly going through a "second childhood" if they do not have reason to save or children to pass on material possessions to, Hoppe says:


 * Lecture 5: The Wealth of Nations: Ideology, Religion, Biology, and Environment - The fifth lecture in the series from Hoppe dives into how "ideological factors" play a role in development and "the wealth of nations", in particular, Hoppe says that certain attitudes towards work or wealth on a societal level play a key role, such as, "...the desire to become wealthier or to be satisfied with low standards of living." Hoppe also explores numerous different religions and religious views of money, and wealth/capital accumulation and how this can impact economic development. Hoppe says that for example, "There exist religions...that prescribe that whenever the master of a household dies, that he should be buried with all of his possessions." Hoppe says of this, "That seems to be, from the outset, a very stupid attitude, at least as far as ever making any progress is concerned; every generation would destroy whatever they have accumulated during that generation... Obviously, a society like this is not likely to accumulate much wealth." Hoppe goes on to explore Hinduism and is deeply critical of it for not making use of all possible material capital around, such as the prohibition of Hindus on eating cows. He believes, that if people stray from the strict tenets of Hinduism, only then, can a society flourish under this religion, "...if we rank various religions, we can say from the outset that Hinduism, as long as people really adhere to it, is not exactly a religion that has great economic promises in store." Hoppe is also critical of Buddhism, saying, "The Buddhist view of life is that ultimate wisdom consists of detachment from life, from the earthly, worldly life.", and how this in Hoppe's view ensures that Buddhists, strictly practiced, will not be optimally situated for success under a capitalist system. Hoppe then is deeply critical of Islam, especially at pains to point out that, "...we frequently hear from proponents of Islam...that they point out this golden age of Islam during the time they occupied Spain, during which they rescued some of the achievements that were generated by the classical Greek culture and they then transmitted them to Christianity. But this so-called golden age is more of an exception, a fluke in Islam, than typical of the Islamic religion. Hoppe is deeply favorable though when he comes next speaking on Confucianism. Hoppe believes that Confucianism, "...is entirely realistic in its outlook and entirely this-worldly. It has no anthropomorphic concept of god. It does speak of heavens, but the heavens are some sort of impersonal thing... there exist no miracles for [Confucians], in contrast to Christianity, where we admit the existence of miraculous events." Hoppe argues that modern day China would be substantially wealthier and more successful today if they were to adopt a purely Confucian society and to abolish any communist or socialist governance. Hoppe is careful in his description of Jews next. Hoppe learned from, and was respectful of Murray Rothbard, and Ludwig von Mises, which he mentions were both Jews and quite brilliant in his estimation. Of the Jewish faith and people, Hoppe says, "...before the year 1800, you see comparatively little in terms of achievements coming from Jews, and the achievements that you do see are typically by people who had broken with their religion." Finally, Hoppe closes this lecture in speaking on Christians, which he breaks up by denominations from protestants to Catholics. Hoppe praises the hierarchical nature of Catholicism, which he believes is a component of his view of "natural order" and derivative from the patriarchy in the home with a father at the helm, then mother, then children. He sees this as reflected as a parallel in the Pope, then cardinals, then bishops, then priests, then congregations etc. In general Hoppe is quite pleased with Catholicism but believes that it wasn't until Thomas Aquinas came to be around the year 1200s CE that Catholicism was best organized, prior to that, in its first 1000 or so years of existence, Hoppe believes the religion was not particularly productive. Hoppe notes though that in mixed countries, where a large number of both Catholics and Protestant Christians are present, that in this cultural milieu, the Protestants seem to have an advantage, Hoppe says, "...in France or Germany, where large parts of the population are Catholic and large parts are Protestant, and Germany is almost half and half, we do find a significant overrepresentation of Protestants among the capitalists..." In closing this lecture, Hoppe ends on Protestant Christianity, and believes that in this, human capital accumulation is optimized, but not necessarily due to anything inherent in the doctrine of the church, but in a puritanical set of values and pressures that are exerted and abided by adherents. Hoppe says of the success of Protestant countries materially:

"What is the most likely explanation for the greater amount of capital accumulation and success and so forth, of the Protestant religion, is simply their puritanical outlook, which involves the idea that you work without enjoyment. Work is the only way to riches. The riches or wealth that you accumulate are an indicator of grace. Work is, for Protestants, almost like prayer. There's a certain amount of asceticism that Protestants accept. You don't enjoy life; you just pain yourself, work harder and harder."


 * Lecture 6: The Production of Law and Order, Natural Order, Feudalism, and Federalism - In the sixth lecture by Hoppe, he discusses the notion that when you produce something yourself, with your own hands, you intrinsically believe that you own it. He argues that this then should extend to be thought of as part of the "natural order." Hoppe also discusses his favorable view of Feudalism and believes that Feudalism gets an unfair bad reputation. Hoppe says also of Feudal kings, "The early feudal kings traveled around frequently from town to town. They were sort of the wandering judges. There existed no such thing as capital cities." Hoppe acknowledges that, "Obviously, we cannot go back to this feudal system." but believes that a form of anarcho-capitalist insurance scheme whereby everyone secures a form of insurance protection of armed persons as well as private courts, would serve a similar benefit to the public and individuals. Hoppe states, "...independent arbitration agencies would create, in a process of competition, something like a universally valid international law through a process of competition, and this would lead to a situation where we have a unified law structure that is valid throughout the entire world, more or less."


 * Lecture 7: Parasitism and the Origin of the State - Hoppe's seventh lecture deals with what he views as productive people and parasitic (non-productive or unproductive) people. Hoppe also warns that if trade, and the division of labor did not exist to benefit all mankind, that, "...we would indeed get some sort of permanent war of each against each other." Hoppe has two clear definitions laid out in this lecture for what he terms "productive activity" and then "parasitic activity", first "productive activity" according to Hoppe is defined as:

"...activities that increase the well-being of at least one person, without reducing the well-being of other individuals."Whereas Hoppe says that "parasitic activity" is defined as:"...activities that make some people better off, at the expense of making other people worse off."To Hoppe, "...a certain delay of gratification is necessary [low time preference] on the part of man in order to give up the temptations that these forms of parasitic behavior might represent." Hoppe argues that government is essentially just an institution of parasites, but offers hope on the basis of what he calls "The fundamental law of parasitism..." which is that:"One parasite can live off a hundred or a thousand hosts very comfortably, but we cannot imagine that thousands of parasites can live a comfortable life off one or two or three hosts. In that case, their life would be miserable too, so what we recognize from this fundamental law of parasitism is that those people who aspire to create an institution such as a state must also always have an interest to be, themselves, just a small group that is capable of ruling, of exploiting, of taxing and exercising an arbitration monopoly over a group of people far larger than they themselves are."Hoppe also states near the end of this lecture that there are four stages to the imposition of a state:


 * 1) First, "...all states try to disarm the population" as a precondition for ruling over them. Hoppe cites an example from the Middle Ages to show that this is not a new trend, "...one of the immediate things that kings did, as soon as they had acquired a semi-state position, was to insist that all the nobles had to raze their own fortresses, to prevent them from coming up with the idea that maybe that whole thing was a screwy process after all and they would defend themselves against the jurisdiction or the tax impositions coming from the side of the king So, raze your fortresses. You can build nice palaces, but no longer anything that serves defensive purposes."
 * 2) Second, impose a form of "public education" in order for the public to be, "...brainwashed in state controlled schools..."
 * 3) Third, monopolize the issuance of money. Hoppe cites the case of France before the establishment of a central French king, "...a multitude of mints competing against each other, trying to acquire the reputation of producing the best, most reliable, least manipulated, type of money. All these competing mints were gradually closed down, until, in the end, only one central government mint remained in existence, which, of course, makes it far easier to engage in manipulations of the gold or silver content than it would be if there a multitude of mints competing against each other."
 * 4) Finally, Hoppe says, that you must "...monopolize the means of transportation and communication, which is of great importance once you recognize that means of communication and transportation would have to play a very important role in any attempt to revolt against the government."

"...even most conservative or free market intellectuals, such as, for instance, Milton Friedman or Friedrich von Hayek, are fundamentally and philosophically also statists.' Hoppe elaborates further on this criticism stating, '...moderate free marketeers, such as Hayek or Friedman, or even among some so-called minarchists, is not only philosophically flawed, but it is also practically ineffective and even counterproductive. There ideas can be, and in fact are, easily co-opted and incorporated by the state rulers and by the statist ideology. In fact, how often do we hear nowadays from statists, in defense of a statist agenda, cries such as 'even Hayek or Friedman says such and such' or 'not even Hayek or Friedman would propose anything like this?"Hoppe closes with an optimistic take on the future being redeemed by secessionist activity over any sort of voting or participatory activity within democratic institutions. Hoppe says:"What I would recommend, in particular, for the United States and so forth, is to realize that democracy will not abolish itself. The masses like to loot other people's property. They will not give up the right to continue doing this. However, there are still, in the United States and in many other places, small islands of reasonable people, and it is possible that on small local levels, some people, some natural authorities can gain enough influence in order to induce them to secede from their central state. And if they do so, and if that accelerates, if it happens at many places simultaneously, it will be almost impossible for the central state to crush a movement such as this. Because in order to crush a movement such as this, again, public opinion has to be in favor of this and it would be difficult to persuade the public to attack to kill, to destroy small places that have done nothing other than to declare that they wish to be independent of the United States."
 * Lecture 8: From Monarchy to Democracy - In the eighth lecture from Hoppe, he covers subject matter that is taken from his earlier book published in 2001 called, Democracy: The God That Failed. Hoppe discusses how, "All kings try to associate themselves with some sort of religious, or give themselves some sort of religious, dignity." and how the importance of the separation of church and state is essential with any monarch to be benevolent, he argues that it was during the Protestant Revolution that this "combination between church, on the one hand, and state or earthly rulers, on the other hand, became increasingly closer again." which Hoppe considered to be a major issue in terms of concentration of power. Hoppe also discusses some benefits of kings in that they are labeled as "private governments" versus "public governments" according to Hoppe and thereby are more likely to be careful or hesitant about going to war and prevent the valuable loss of their well trained, and expensive, soldiers, versus democratic government armies that might fight for some idea or principle and not have a clear end in sight for any particular war as a result of thinking along the lines of Woodrow Wilson's infamous, "make the world safe for democracy" notion.
 * Lecture 9: State, War, and Imperialism - For the penultimate lecture, Hoppe discusses his view on "fighting and war, conquest, and plunder" and how these activities are "deviationist behavior" from Hoppe's conception of a "natural order." Hoppe argues that it is a "lack of intelligence" and "high time preference" that leads an individual to rob, steal, or kill, "being tempted by the immediate advantages that you can gain by robbing and plundering and engaging in these sorts of activities." Hoppe summarizes in this lecture much of what had previously been stated in the prior eight lectures as well. Hoppe also tells of how the 1800s were essentially the most peaceful century in recent history, he argues that this was due to the fact that many monarchies were still engaging in very frequent, but very minor wars or battles, often fought over small pieces of land or material prizes, and not over an ideological pursuit, such as "making the world safe for democracy." The only exception that Hoppe could find from this rule in the 19th century would be the American Civil War.
 * Lecture 10: Strategy, Secession, Privatization, and the Prospects of Liberty - In the final lecture of the series, Hoppe summarizes the earlier ten lectures, but then also closes with some advice on how to advance the ideas he advocates in a practical way. It is also in this closing lecture that Hoppe takes time to strongly criticize other advocates of free markets that do so in a way that Hoppe considers to be a compromise of principles. Hoppe says: