The chief value of the rule lies in preventing an immediate and obvious but inferior good from replacing a longer-range, less obvious but superior one.
Ralph RaicoProtectionism, socialism, all varieties of state favoritism and restrictions on competition, and the growth of bureaucracy and jobbery were the means by which special interests sought to exploit the public, the great mass of consumers and taxpayers.
Ralph RaicoKeynes, far from being a wholehearted lover of freedom, viewed with some sympathy the fascist and Communist โexperimentsโ of the 1930s.
Ralph RaicoTariffs, government contracts, naval and military spending, nationalized industries, tax policy, social welfare, the legal privileging of labor unions were among the means at the disposal of the governing class to exploit the public at large for the benefits of its various clienteles.
Ralph RaicoWhat is the free market? Well, the free market, [we're told] is really a terrible, inhuman kind of arrangement, because it treats people like commodities. But how does the government treat people? Like garbage-worse than garbage. Not like commodities, but like nothing. We libertarians understand that we are not humane, we are not compassionate. It's the leftists and the liberals, they're the ones who are human and compassionate, but you'd better not get in their way.
Ralph Raico