Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy) Quotes

“Abraham Lincoln talked about a government of the people, by the people, for the people. What we now have is a government of the people, by the bureaucrats, including the legislators who have become bureaucrats, for the bureaucrats.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy Book 39)

“None of this means that government does not have a very real function. Indeed, the tragedy is that because government is doing so many things it ought not to be doing, it performs the functions it ought to be performing badly. The basic functions of government are to defend the nation against foreign enemies, to prevent coercion of some individuals by others within the country, to provide a means of deciding on our rules, and to adjudicate disputes.3”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy Book 39)

“If a private enterprise is a failure, it closes down—unless it can get a government subsidy to keep it going; if a government enterprise fails, it is expanded. I challenge you to find exceptions.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy Book 39)

“Government actions often provide substantial benefits to a few while imposing small costs on many.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem

“At the end of World War II, we had wage and price controls. Under wartime inflationary conditions, many employers found it difficult to recruit employees. To get around the limitations of wage control, many began to offer health care as a fringe benefit to attract workers. As a new benefit, it took some years for the Internal Revenue Service to get around to requiring the cost of the medical care to be included in the reported taxable income of the employees. By the time it did, workers had come to regard nontaxable medical care provided by the employer as a right—or should I say entitlement? They raised such a big political fuss that Congress legislated nontaxable status for employer-provided medical care.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy Book 39)

“The public at large thinks that government is too big.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem

“There is one thing, he said, that you can trust everybody to do and that is to put his interest above yours.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem

“People who intend to serve only the public interest are led by an invisible hand to serve private interests which was no part of their intention.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem

“The particular consequence that I find most indefensible is the havoc wreaked on residents of Colombia, Peru, and other countries because we cannot enforce our own laws. I have yet to hear an acceptable justification of that consequence.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy Book 39)

“I believe a major source of our current lawlessness, in particular the destruction of the inner cities, is the attempt to prohibit so-called drugs. I say so-called because the most harmful drugs in the United States are legal: cigarettes and alcohol.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy Book 39)

“You can rigidly enforce only those laws that most people believe to be good laws, that is, laws that proscribe actions that they would avoid even in the absence of laws.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy Book 39)

“Instead of Lincoln's government "of the people, by the people, and for the people," we now have a government "of the people, by the bureaucrats, for the bureaucrats," including the elected representatives who have become bureaucrats.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy Book 39)

“The people in one district can choose not to reelect their member of Congress, but that will not change the composition of the government as a whole. You have to change the system and make it possible for the people's will to be heard.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy Book 39)

“There is a real function for government in respect to pollution: to set conditions and, in particular, define property rights to make sure that the costs are borne by the parties responsible.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy Book 39)

“It is ironic that the Great Depression was produced by government but was blamed on the private enterprise system. The Federal Reserve System explained in its 1933 annual report how much worse things would have been if the Federal Reserve had not behaved so well, yet the Federal Reserve was the chief culprit in making the depression as deep as it was. So the government produced the depression, the private enterprise system got blamed for it, and there was a tremendous change in attitudes.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy Book 39)

“Highway Congestion We all complain about highway congestion. That is interesting for a different reason. The private automobile industry is able to produce all the automobiles anybody wants to drive, but the government is apparently not able to produce a comparably adequate highway system, a clear contrast.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy Book 39)

“Another social problem is the high cost of housing and the destruction of housing. The North Bronx looks like the pictures recently coming from Yugoslavia of areas that have been shelled. There is no doubt what the cause is: rent control in the city of New York, both directly and via the government taking over many dwelling units because rent control prevented owners from keeping them up.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy Book 39)

“Why is it that able, public-spirited people produce such different results according to whether they operate in the political or the economic market? Why is it that if a random sample of the people who read this essay and are not at present in Washington were to replace those who are in Washington, our policies would very likely not be improved? That is the real puzzle for me.”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy Book 39)

“In part because there are so many laws to break; and the more laws there are to break, the harder it is to prevent them from being broken”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy)

“a private enterprise is a failure, it closes down—unless it can get a government subsidy to keep it going; if a government enterprise fails, it is expanded. I challenge you to find exceptions. The”
― Milton Friedman, Why Government Is the Problem (Essays in Public Policy Book 39)