[From The Review of Austrian Economics 9 (2), 1996, pp. 43-58.]
The very term “public utility” … is an absurd one. Every good is useful “to the public,” and almost every good … may be considered “necessary.” Any designation of a few industries as “public utilities” is completely arbitrary and unjustified.
— Murray Rothbard, Power and Market
From The Review of Austrian Economics Vol. 5, No. 1, 1991.
Austrian economics emerged in rebellion against skepticism. The predominant economic doctrine in continental Europe at the time of its founding, that championed by the German historical school under Gustav Schmoller, rejected the idea of an economic science devoted to the explanation of market phenomena in terms of exact and universal laws. It proposed, instead, historical description and interpretation of social events devoid of any reference to universal or “exact” laws and to “pure” economic theories based on them.
