The Greatest of All Organized-Crime Gangs

The state has the means, the motive, and the opportunity, so no one should be surprised that it commits the crime(s). Moreover, because it has the most powerful means, the strongest motive, and the most expansive opportunities, no one should be surprised that its crimes are the most heinous, pervasive, and ceaseless. That so few people recognize the state as the greatest of all organized-crime gangs demonstrates the power of habit — of long-established institutions — and the state’s constant, well-organized, and lavishly funded efforts to bamboozle its subjects, the better to conceal its true nature, conduct, and consequences.

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Robert Higgs is Senior Fellow in Political Economy at the Independent Institute and Editor at Large of the Institute’s quarterly journal The Independent Review. He received his Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University, and he has taught at the University of Washington, Lafayette College, Seattle University, the University of Economics, Prague, and George Mason University. He has been a visiting scholar at Oxford University and Stanford University, and a fellow at the Hoover Institution and the National Science Foundation.