Pointless bureaucracy is something that suffocates us all. Those in business, a little more than others, but it’s crushing everyone. The endless lines of pointless regulations, forms, prohibitions and obligations… especially obligations to buy things we don’t need. That’s on top of the horrendously expensive and opaque civil service. It doesn’t need detailing. All of it. we all know.

How many times have you heard that this is a manifestation of “socialism”? I, at least… thousands of times. They say socialists want more and more bureaucracy. Really? Well, the reality is that under socialism, even though the state owned almost everything and tried to run everything, it managed it with a fraction of public servants and a fraction of the official duties than liberal regimes. And it doesn’t seem that the problem of over-bureaucracy is a problem in, say, China.

Even Western European welfare states managed to manage the economy with a tiny fraction of today’s official duties.

No, over-bureaucracy is not something socialist. It comes after privatisations and other liberal reforms. Every time a free-market government comes in, hold on to your wallets and get ready for more forms.

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