When something goes wrong, the natural tendency is to say, “By God, we need to pass a law and do something.”
The world runs on individuals pursuing their self interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn’t construct his theory under order from a, from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn’t revolutionize the automobile industry that way.
You never have real changes unless you have a time of crisis.
When you argue for free markets, you are arguing against the trend.
The government doesn’t have any money. The only power it has is to take from some and give to others.
Germany’s problem, in part, is that it went into the euro at the wrong exchange rate that overvalued the deutsche mark.
Drugs are a tragedy for addicts. But criminalizing their use converts that tragedy into a disaster for society, for users and non-users alike. Our experience with the prohibition of drugs is a replay of our experience with the prohibition of alcoholic beverages.
The big issue is whether the United States will succeed in its venture of reshaping the Middle East. It is not clear to me that using military force is the way to do it. We should not have gone into Iraq. But we have.
If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.
Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.
So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear. That there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.
I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it’s possible.
The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.
When you have a time of crisis what happens depends on what ideas are floating around, and what ideas have been developed, and thought through, and are made effective.
Fundamentally, there are only two ways of coordinating the economic activities of millions. One is central direction involving the use of coercion – the technique of the army and of the modern totalitarian state. The other is voluntary cooperation of individuals – the technique of the marketplace.
I think a major reason why intellectuals tend to move towards collectivism is that the collectivist answer is a simple one. If there’s something wrong, pass a law and do something about it.
The central banks cannot control interest rates. That’s a mistake. They can control a particular rate, such as the Federal Funds rate, if they want to, but they can’t control interest rates.
I’m in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my values system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so. Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal.
The only reason free markets have a ghost of a chance is that they are so much more efficient than any other form of organization.
If a tax cut increases government revenues, you haven’t cut taxes enough.