Review of Power and Prosperity by Mancur Olson
Volume 5, No. 2 (Summer 2002)
Although bits and pieces of “Competition as a Discovery Procedure” began to appear in English as early a the 1970s, the translator discovered that, by the time he assumed emeritus status in 1998, no full translation of the original 1968 Kiel version was yet extant. Translating such a document into English would make it much more widely accessible. It was this conviction, along with the flexible workload of a retired academic, that resulted in the present translation.
[This is a translation from German of F.A. Hayek’s “Der Wettbewerb als Entdeckungsverfahren,” a 1968 lecture sponsored by the Institut für Weltwirtschaft at the University of Kiel. Translated by Marcellus S. Snow.]
The State applies itself to loading everybody’s brain with prejudices, and everybody’s heart with sentiments favorable to the spirit of anarchy, war, and hatred; so that, when a doctrine of order, peace, and union presents itself, it is in vain that it has clearness and truth on its side,—it cannot gain admittance. The most urgent necessity is, not that the State should teach, but that it should allow education. All monopolies are detestable, but the worst of all is the monopoly of education.