12. The Most Important Discovery in Economics
• CHAPTER 12 •
THE MOST IMPORTANT
DISCOVERY IN ECONOMICS
THE SOCIALISTIC or governmentally planned system presupposes bureaucrats competent to control the actions of others. The market economy, by contrast, rests on the free exchange of goods and services among ordinary citizens; it doesn’t depend on supermen, not even one!
13. The Greatest Computer on Earth
• CHAPTER 13 •
THE GREATEST COMPUTER
ON EARTH
WHEN A PERSON does not know how little he knows, he may try to change a room’s temperature by monkeying with the thermometer; or, equally absurd, he may tamper with prices to control the market.
Wherever there are people, there will be a market of some sort. The market can no more be eliminated than can its primary components—production and exchange.
14. Mail By Miracle
• CHAPTER 14 •
MAIL BY MIRACLE
MY FELLOW PANELIST, a college dean who espoused government security programs of all sorts, had never before encountered anyone who insisted that government should be limited, without exception, to keeping the peace. Finally, in exasperation, he delivered this intended coup de grace: “Well, if my panelist friend thinks that government should be so severely limited, I would like to have him tell this audience how private enterprise could deliver the mail.”
15. Whose Academic Freedom?
• CHAPTER 15 •
WHOSE ACADEMIC FREEDOM?
MANY thoughtful persons, when supplied with the evidence, will agree that a creative activity should be left to free men, with government relegated to keeping the peace; that is, they will agree when the issue is as clear cut as in the case of the postal service. And many also will concede that this same division of functions should apply to countless creative activities: leave productive and creative affairs to free men; leave the inhibiting and penalizing of destructive actions to government.
16. Education for the Sake of Others
• CHAPTER 16 •
EDUCATION FOR
THE SAKE OF OTHERS
THIS chapter is intended as a critique of government education.
17. Education for One’s Own Sake
• CHAPTER 17 •
EDUCATION FOR
ONE’S OWN SAKE
THIS CHAPTER is intended to suggest free market education as the appropriate alternative to government education.
18. In Pursuit of Excellence
• CHAPTER 18 •
IN PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE
THE IDEAL OF FREEDOM is to let anyone do anything he pleases, as long as his behavior is peaceful, with government empowered to keep the peace—and nothing more. An ideal objective, true, but one that must be pursued if we would halt the continuing descent of our society from bad to worse. Nothing short of this will suffice. And unless we fully understand the ideal—and what makes for its attainment—we’ll tend to settle for powerless, futile little pushes and shoves that yield no more than a false sense of something done.
Index
INDEX
Prepared by Vernelia A. Crawford
The letter “n” following a figure refers to a footnote.
A
Academic freedom, 180-90
Acton, John (Lord), 67
American Revolution, 13
American setting, past and present, 10-30
Amish farmers, 39
Argentina, 20
Aristocracy, 225
Assignats, French, 19
Association, 89, 93, 102
Authoritarianism
diagnosed, 66
forms of, 13
political, 29
responsibility and, 63, 77, 185
result of, 146
B
Ballot, 114
Backcover
Let Freedom Reign
