If We are to Build a Better World
Friedrich A. Hayek (1899-1992)
Economist

"There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal."  –  F.A. Hayek

"Private property is one of the best institutions which has ever evolved, to protect us from the bullying of others." ― Roger Scruton

Hayekian Insights
1. Recessions are bound to happen.
2. Central planning and excessive regulation sure don’t work.
3. Some regulation is necessary.
4. A stimulus will only stimulate the deficit.
5. The economy is too complex for precise forecasting.
6. Remember the rule of unintended consequences.
7. You won’t believe how much you’ll learn in Econ 101 (ie, scarcity, supply & demand, division of labor, etc)
8. Leave social justice out of it.  Free markets can lead to unequal distribution of wealth.  However, it is misguided and dangerous to make a call for egalitarian social justice.  A person’s or an organization’s actions may be just or unjust, but the market process is not planned and the income distribution it generates has nothing to do with justice.
The egalitarian who demands social justice violate the principle of the rule of law.  If people differ in their attributes, then different people will necessarily experience different outcomes.  The only way to get similar outcomes for different people is to treat them differently.
9. Nothing beats the free market.  Hayek admitted that if we had more knowledge we could do a lot more to improve the world through planning and regulation.  But we don’t.
10. As a rule of thumb, government cures are not only worse that the disease, but lead to further disease.

Best argument for a free market:
1. Bureaucrats have an incentive to maximize bureaucracy.
2. Politicians, who seek reelection, have an incentive to increase spending and decrease taxes.
3. Corporations have an incentive to squeeze out the competition through government conferred advantages.

F.A. Hayek was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1974.