We economists don't know much, but we do know how to create a shortage. If you want to create a shortage of tomatoes, for example, just pass a law that retailers can't sell tomatoes for more than two cents per pound. Instantly you'll have a tomato shortage. It's the same with oil or gas.

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One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.

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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.

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If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.

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The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.

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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?

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Corruption is government intrusion into market efficiencies in the form of regulations.

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Since the 1930s the technique of buying votes with the voters' own money has been expanded to an extent undreamed of by earlier politicians.

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A minimum-wage law is, in reality, a law that makes it illegal for an employer to hire a person with limited skills.

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Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

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