Given the current traction government intervention is having in the media and among some groups sentiments (see Regulating Compensation, Administrating Health Care Plans, Sole Originator of Student Loans, etc.) I thought I would share two quotes on government intervention.

My interpretation is that for some reason it is believed that government officials, be it representatives, appointees, or career bureaucrats, are somehow better suited to run things than a private market (think all of our social institutions not just companies). Milton Friedman in the below quote said it well, by asking, in an interview with Phil Donahue, why is it believed that politicians have a nobler self-interest than the self-interest of market participants (think, you and I).

“Do American Presidents reward virtue? Do they choose their appointees on the basis of the virtue of the people appointed or on the basis of their political clout? Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler, somehow, than economic self-interest? You know, I think you’re taking a lot of things for granted. And just tell me where in the world do you find these angels who are going to organize society for us? I don’t even trust you to do that.”

And F.A. Hayek sums up the concept that people in power like to exercise their power.

“The probability of the people in power being individuals who would dislike the possession and exercise of power is on a level with the probability that an extremely tender-hearted person would get the job of whipping master in a slave plantation.”