In my latest National Post column I say the deep ideas the government solicited about preserving the welfare state regardless of what it actually does or what's going on around it seem to miss the point.
"'popular economist’ is a contradiction in terms. Economics has never been – and perhaps never can be – popular because it is the study of what people actually do rather than what they profess to do or recommend that others do. It lays bare hypocrisy and dwells far too gloomily on the ‘unintended results’ to which so many fine-sounding policies fall prey."
Peter Foster in Financial Post May 2, 2006
“The question which moral system was the best depends principally on the question whether the heathen philosophers or the Christian preachers were right in their estimate of the facts. To suppose that Christian morals can ever survive the downfall of the great Christian doctrine is as absurd as to suppose that a yearly tenant will feel towards his property like a tenant in fee simple.”
James Fitzjames Stephen, “Note on Utilitarianism” postscript to Stephen's book Liberty Equality Fraternity
"Liberty underlies the entire enterprise; it’s not just one more vector in an indifference curve.”
Walter Block in Michael Walker, ed., Freedom Democracy and Economic Welfare: Proceedings of an International Symposium