Those in Political Authority and Power Assume They Can Micro- and Macro-Manage Social and Economic Affairs Better Than the Free Market

Over the last 100 years, governments have attempted to replace people’s own free actions for mutual betterment with systems of government regulation, planning, redistribution and control. These have gone under the names of socialism, communism, fascism, National Socialism (Nazism) interventionism, welfare statism, “progressivism,” the “third-way,” social democracy, Keynesianism and many others.

Their common premise is that those in political authority and power can micro- and macro-manage the social and economic affairs of human society in ways better and more socially just than the free market. Austrian Economics shows why and how it is that all these attempts at government social engineering have failed and often with disastrous consequences.

--Richard M. Ebeling, introduction to Austrian Economics and Public Policy: Restoring Freedom and Prosperity (Fairfax, VA: The Future of Freedom Foundation, 2016), Kindle e-book.