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More Quotes by Milton Friedman
Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.
Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation.
If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.
When a man spends his own money to buy something for himself, he is very careful about how much he spends and how he spends it. When a man spends his own money to buy something for someone else, he is still very careful about how much he spends, but somewhat less what he spends it on. When a man spends someone else's money to buy something for himself, he is very careful about what he buys, but doesn't care at all how much he spends. And when a man spends someone else's money on someone else, he does't care how much he spends or what he spends it on. And that's government for you.
Nobody spends somebody else's money as carefully as he spends his own.
One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.
When you start paying people to be poor, you wind up with an awful lot of poor people.
Why have we had such a decline in moral climate? I submit to you that a major factor has been a change in the philosophy which has been dominant, a change from belief in individual responsibility to belief in social responsibility. If you adopt the view that a man is not responsible for his own behavior, that somehow society is responsible, why should he seek to make his behavior good?
Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. When government-- in pursuit of good intentions tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player.
Corruption is government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulations.
