Quotation of the Day…

(Don Boudreaux)

Tweet

… is from page 19 of Roger Koppl’s excellent 2018 book, Expert Failure (original emphasis):

Under the rule of experts, knowledge is imposed on the system. Knowledge should instead emerge from the system. If knowledge is imposed on the system, it is imposed by someone who imposes upon and therefore dominates others. The persons imposed upon are not in a relation of equality with those imposing a knowledge on society.

DBx: Keep this important reality in mind whenever you hear someone advocate the use of tariffs, subsidies, certificate-of-need regulations, minimum-wage statutes, antitrust restrictions on peaceful business activities and contracting, and FDA-like prohibitions. Those who advocate for such interventions necessarily advocate a truly indefensible inequality: the inequality of power. (Oh, the fact that many such advocates do not realize that they are advocating power inequality does not change the essence of what they are doing.)