Generally, in small societies, democracy is more successful than in large societies.
In countries like India or the United States, the federal government has become so large that they take decisions that are not necessarily in the interest of the individual. This is different from Switzerland, where we have municipalities, “Gemeinden”, and states, “Cantons”, with a lot of decentralized power, which I find very desirable. Basically, over the last, I would say, 100 years, the Keynesians and the Neo-Keynesians thereafter propagated their view that the larger the government and the more the interventions the better a society becomes. They have managed to discredit the Austrian School of Economics. As a result, society in general has turned into an entitlement society where we have an insurance policy for everything and the government is expected to pay the bills. And so, the freedom of the individual is undermined. But with
freedom comes responsibility, personal responsibility. This has been pushed aside and people don’t realize that they can’t be free if they don’t take on responsibility. Adam Smith said the government should be in charge of a well-structured legal system, low taxes and defense and nothing else! Instead, we have more and more socialism and state planning, which diminishes people’s freedom. I believe we need to have a huge change in society to make people understand that if you want to have freedom you also have to take on personal responsibility.
Contrarian Investor Dr.Marc Faber is an international investor known for his uncanny predictions of the stock market and futures markets around the world.
