From The Quotable Mises — surrounding passage

Nation, State, and Economy , p. 77 Modern society, based as it is on the division of labor, can be preserved only under conditions of lasting peace. Liberalism , p. 44

“The market economy involves peaceful cooperation. It bursts asunder when the citizens turn into warriors and, instead of exchanging commodities and services, fight one another.”

Human Action , p. 817; p. 821 Modern war is not a war of royal armies. It is a war of the peoples, a total war. It is a war of states which do not leave to their subjects any private sphere; they consider the whole population a part of the armed forces. Whoever does not fight must work for the support and equipment of the army. Army and people are one and the same. The citizens passionately participate in the war. For it is their state, their God, who fights. Omnipotent Government , p.