David Friedman Quotes

12 Sourced Quotes

An ideal objectivist society with a limited government is superior to an anarcho-capitalist society in precisely the same way that an ideal socialist society is superior to a capitalist society. Socialism does better with perfect people than anarcho-capitalism with imperfect. And it is better to wear a bikini with the sun shining than a raincoat when it is raining. That is no argument against carrying an umbrella.

David Friedman
In the ideal socialist state, power will not attract power freaks. People who make decisions will show no slightest bias towards their own interests. There will be no way for a clever man to bend the institutions to serve his own ends. And the rivers will run uphill.

David Friedman
I predict that, if anarcho-capitalist institutions appeared in this country tomorrow, heroin would be legal in New York and illegal in most other places.

David Friedman
Perhaps the best way to see why anarcho-capitalism would be much more peaceful than our present system is by analogy. Consider our world as it would be if the cost of moving from one country to another were zero. Everyone lives in a housetrailer and speaks the same language. One day, the president of France announces that because of troubles with neighboring countries, new military taxes are being levied and conscription will begin shortly. The next morning the president of France finds himself ruling a peaceful but empty landscape, the population having been reduced to himself, three generals, and twenty-seven war correspondents.

David Friedman
The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.

David Friedman
The tendency to be rational is the consistent and hence predictable element in human behavior.

David Friedman
If we want to be honest, we can ship the Statue of Liberty back to France or replace the outdated verse with new lines, "America the closed preserve/ That dirty foreigners don't deserve".

David Friedman
Economics is that way of understanding behavior that starts from the assumption that people have objectives and tend to choose the correct way to achieve them.

David Friedman
The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations.

David Friedman
Legal rules are to be judged by the structure of incentives they establish and the consequences of people altering their behavior in response to those incentives

David Friedman
Part of freedom is the right of each of us to go to hell in his own fashion.

David Friedman
Why don't we have libertarian anarchy? Why does government exist? The answer implicit in previous chapters is that government as a whole exists because most people believe it is necessary.

David Friedman