Quotation of the Day…

(Don Boudreaux)

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… is from pages 210-211 of the 1996 Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) edition of Henry Hazlitt’s insightful 1973 book, The Conquest of Poverty (original emphasis):

And unlike a government agency, the private owner is obliged by self-preservation to try to avoid losses, which means that he is forced to run his railroad economically and efficiently. And also unlike a government agency, the private capitalist is nearly always obliged to face competition – which means to make the services he provides or the goods he sells superior or at least equal to those provided by his competitors. Therefore the private capitalist normally serves the public far better than the government could if it took over his property.