The quote in the subject line is attributed to Frank Easterbrook, Chief Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Easterbrook is a graduate of the University of Chicago School of Law and is a senior lecturer at the school. He’s one of the big thinkers affiliated with this university who contribute to its reputation as advocates for the power of the free market. This school of thought is widely known as the “Chicago School.” I’m proud to say that Chicago is where I earned my MBA and learned to think.

I believe Easterbrook was referring to government when he made this statement. I like it because it reinforces my libertarian view of the world. Here’s an additional baker’s dozen of similar quotes that tickle my libertarian fancy:

• “Corruption is a regular effect of interventionists.” Ludwig von Mises
• “Too often government attempts to regulate the behavior of 99% in hopes of controlling 1%. Holman W. Jenkins Jr.
• “Doctrinaire public officials assume that the only consequences of legislation are those intended by the legislators.” Richard A. Epstein
• “Government will always do the right thing—after they have exhausted all other possibilities.” John Fund
• “Democrats are the party that says government can make you richer, smarter, taller and get the chickweed out of your lawn. Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work, and then they get elected and prove it.” P. J. O’Rourke
• “Government subsidies can be critically analyzed according to a simple principle: You are smarter than the government, so when the government pays you to do something you wouldn’t do on your own, it is almost always paying you to do something stupid.” P. J. O’Rourke
• “I have come to believe that asking a government official to change is like asking a cat to bark; it requires a genetic makeup that simply isn’t present.” Kenichi Ohmae
• One person’s definition of government: “Foolish, arrogant people in high places doing self-serving, dumb things.”
• Another person’s definition of socialism: “The equal distribution of poverty, shortages and people who don’t want to work.”
• “If it moves tax it, if it keeps moving regulate it, and if it stops moving subsidize it.” Ronald Reagan
• “The imperative of the political class is to accumulate even more political power. Politicians don’t arrive here corrupt, or at least most don’t, but the attraction of power is corrupting to all but the hardiest souls.” Paul A. Gigot
• “Both the jayhawk and the man eat chickens, but the more jayhawks, the fewer chickens, while the more men, the more chickens.” Henry George
• “Fatal conceit” is F. A. Hayek’s premise that enlightened, well-educated people with power believe that they can reorder society to function better than it does with messy institutions that have evolved from the unplanned interactions of millions of human beings.

That’s my list; I hope it makes you pause and think.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Mike's Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.