June 15, 2009 11:27PM 

# Mises on Obama 

By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) 

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I was rereading George Nash’s book [The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America](http://www.isi.org/books/content/405chap1.pdf), and I found this ever-more-timely and surprisingly pithy quotation from Ludwig von Mises in his book [Bureaucracy](http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1891&Itemid=27):

> They promise the blessings of the Garden of Eden, but they plan to transform the world into a gigantic post office.

(Meanwhile, thanks to the continuing progress made by the non-state sector of society, what a wonderful world in which both these brilliant books can be read either in hard copy or on line!)

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