There is only one social responsibility of business - to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits without deception or fraud.
What kind of society isn't structured on greed? The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm; capitalism is that kind of a system.
When government - in pursuit of good intentions - tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player.
The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.
I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible.
And what does reward virtue? You think the communist commissar rewards virtue? You think a Hitler rewards virtue? You think, excuse me, if you'll pardon me, 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?
The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm, capitalism is that kind of a system.
The world runs on individuals pursuing their self interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn't construct his theory under order from a, from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the automobile industry that way.
The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit.
Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.
Every friend of freedom must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence.
So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear. That there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.
If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand.
The most important ways in which I think the Internet will affect the big issue is that it will make it more difficult for government to collect taxes.
Columbus did not seek a new route to the Indies in response to a majority directive.
Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless.
The only relevant test of the validity of a hypothesis is comparison of prediction with experience.
Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.
Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property.
The only way that has ever been discovered to have a lot of people cooperate together voluntarily is through the free market. And that's why it's so essential to preserving individual freedom.
