Tuesday, October 26, 2004

The End is Nigh, says Sean Corrigan

At Mises.org, in an article called How Empires Really End.

He's not overly concerned. His conclusion after summarizing new archeological scholarship on the end of the Roman Empire which find that, for the most part, it wasn't very cataclysmic if you weren't a ruler:
Don’t be tempted to hole up in the mountains with only your water purifier, your rifle, and your Krugerrands for company for, if the end of the world does come, no amount of gold is going to comfort you very much.

But if it is only our version of Rome which falls—this will not invalidate the lasting truth that your own wealth is best preserved when it helps another entrepreneur in the process of creating his.

This means you must not hoard what is yours, for its real worth will only dwindle, if you do, eaten away by inflation, confiscated by the tax farmers.

No, rather, you must keep on trying to invest it wisely by using it to participate in undertakings which make their owners a living through serving their post-Imperial, just as their pre-Imperial, customers better than their competitors can.

All in all, you know the Emperor Honorius may not have been such a fool, after all.

Maybe his rooster—a most useful bird, economically speaking— did matter more than the fate of any ruler or regime, for the final lesson we must draw is that, as long as Men are Men, entrepreneurship will always outlast empire.

So, take note, you "historians of decline": our times will be no exception.

The rulers always bleed the People. Too often literally: there are few rulers who didn't conscript the poor to engage in their lust for adventure or revenge. The good news is that they all die.

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