Quotes About Government

Modernity starts with the state monopoly on violence, and ends with the state's monopoly on fiscal irresponsibility.

The Nation-state: apartheid without political incorrectness.

Governments are wasting billions of dollars on attempting to predict events that are produced by interdependent systems and are therefore not statistically understandable at the individual level.

In poor countries, officials receive explicit bribes; in D.C. they get the sophisticated implicit, unspoken promise to work for large corporations.

Some people do not know their own interest—just consider addicts, workaholics, people trapped in a bad relationship, people who support large government, the press, book reviewers, or respectable bureaucrats, all of whom for some mysterious reason act against their own interest.

Until recent history, the central state represented about 5 percent of the economy. ...and further, governments were sufficiently distracted by war to leave economic affairs to businessmen. The contagious creation of nation-states in the late nineteenth century led to what we saw with the two world wars and their sequels.

Also consider that lobbyists—this annoying race of lobbyists—cannot exist in a municipality or small region.

interventionism depletes mental and economic resources; it is rarely available when it is needed the most.

Paradoxically, many government interventions and social policies end up hurting the weak and consolidating the established.

Beware of precise plans by governments. As

The British government documents, as early as fifty years ago, an aim for education other than the one we have today: raising values, making good citizens, and "learning," not economic growth (they were not suckers at the time)—a point also made by Alison Wolf.

Let us not forget something embedded in the U.S. Constitution: the president is commander in chief.

let governments predict (it makes officials feel better about themselves and justifies their existence) but do not set much store by what they say. Remember that the interest of these civil servants is to survive and self-perpetuate—not to get to the truth.

By all means, demand certainty for the next picnic; but avoid government social-security forecasts for the year 2040.

The central point: had Stiglitz been a businessman with his own money on the line, he would have blown up, terminated. Or had he been in nature, his genes would have been made extinct—so people with such misunderstanding of probability would eventually disappear from our DNA. What I found nauseating was the government hiring one of his coauthors.

People have difficulty realizing that the solution is building a system in which nobody's fall can drag others down—for continuous failures work to preserve the system. Paradoxically, many government interventions and social policies end up hurting the weak and consolidating the established.

Beware of precise plans by government. Let government predict: it makes them feel better about themselves and justifies their existence.

We saw that bureaucrats (whether in government or large corporations) live in a system of rewards based on narratives

Una teoria è come una medicina (o un governo): spesso inutile, a volte necessaria, sempre interessata e occasionalmente letale. Per questo dev'essere usata con attenzione, moderazione e sotto la supervisione di un adulto.

This argument is not against adopting governmental educational policies for noble aims such as reducing inequality in the population, allowing the poor to access good literature and read Dickens, Victor Hugo, or Julien Gracq, or increasing the freedom of women in poor countries, which happens to decrease the birth rate. But then one should not use the excuses of "growth" or "wealth" in such matters.

3) The regulator's incentive to make complicated regulations in order to subsequently sell his "expertise" to the private sector.

A theory is like medicine (or government): often useless, sometimes necessary, always self-serving, and on occasion lethal. So it needs to be used with care, moderation, and close adult supervision.

Education has benefits aside from stabilizing family incomes. Education makes individuals more polished dinner partners, for instance, something non-negligible. But the idea of educating people to improve the economy is rather novel. The British government documents, as early as fifty years ago, an aim for education other than the one we have today: raising values, making good citizens, and "learning," not economic growth

Whatever may need to be bailed out should be nationalized; whatever does not need a bailout should be free, small, and risk-bearing. We got ourselves into the worst of capitalism and socialism. In France, in the 1980s, the socialists took over the banks. In the United States in the 2000s, the banks took over the government. This is surreal.