People are not treated equally.  Some have special privilege.  Everyone is treated equally under capitalism.  Few have special privilege under statism.  Legislation is put into place preventing the more industrious from out competing the less industrious.  The masses are harmed.  The few are better off at the expense of the masses.  Many consider it’s ignorant to support capitalism.  However, it’s the supporters of statism that are the unwitting pawns.

The god-state claims to know what you want better than you.  The false prophets claim to know what’s good for you and what you really need.  Humans are soulless automatons under statism. Each individual is free to choose how to act within the system of division of labor.  The consumers and entrepreneurs should choose what is to be produced.  No human is omniscient.  What they chose must be different and enforced by coercion.

The god-state can coerce the masses into following their decrees.  It’s about social life, not about if coercion can happen.  They claim to be realistic and practical, but they are far from it.  Not every decision is a good one.  There is no stopping point once it’s admitted that people should be protected from their own irresponsibility.  What about: alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and bad books?  If the god-state can determine what’s bad they can determine anything to be bad.

Bad ideologies are worse.  They’re intellectual poison.  Are all ideologies to be outlawed if some?  It’ll probably be the ideologies the god-state doesn’t agree with.  They unwittingly support censorship.  However, it’s been called for recently.  It’ll be censorship of one thing then another.  There is no stopping point.  The naïve advocates of statism are advocating all freedoms be taken away.

Many may be surprised to hear it, but we are not equal.  Preferred businesses get preferential treatment.  This protects them from the more efficient upstart.  The masses are forced to pay a higher cost and/or get a lower quality product.  Regulations are put into place, not to protect the consumer, to protect the business from competition.  As the saying goes: regulations are made by big business for big business.

Reference

Ludwig von Mises; Human Action