The great virtue of a free market system is that it does not care what color people are; it does not care what their religion is; it only cares whether they can produce something you want to buy. It is the most effective system we have discovered to enable people who hate one another to deal with one another and help one another.

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

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A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.

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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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Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

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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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We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.

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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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