"Public Servants" or Parasites?

Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Feb. 21, 2011

"The existence of a state leads to the development and promotion of parasitism. As tax-receivers, it is possible for the occupants of the state to live without working, i.e., without having to give the tax-payers something they consider worthwhile in return. Contrary to still wide-spread Marxist mythology, it is not the entrepreneurs who exploit their workers. Rather, it is the occupants of the state — the king and his court in the case of monarchy; the president, the parliament, and the so-called public service in the case of democracy, i.e., those who most vocally claim to work for the public good — who actually live exploitatively and parasitically at the expense of others. The higher the state revenue, the better off the parasites are and/or the more parasites there are.

Worse still, as final judge in all matters of conflict, the occupants of the state are in a position not only to arbitrate conflicts expensively and miserably, but to actually cause and to provoke conflict in order to then "solve" it to their own advantage. That is, a statist order not only produces low quality goods at excessive prices and thus promotes parasitism, but it produces evil and injustice, and it promotes, especially under democratic conditions (when entry into the state apparatus is open to everyone), the development of evil characters and evil character traits." - Hans-Hermann Hoppe