… is from page 257 of W.H. Hutt‘s important 1936 volume, Economists and the Public:
The consumer is sovereign when, in his role of citizen, he has not delegated to political institutions for authoritarian use the power which he can exercise socially through his power to demand (or to refrain from demanding).
One of many mercantilist superstitions is that ordinary people are enriched if the state restricts their freedom to spend their money as they choose and, thereby, shields domestic producers from the competition that would otherwise come from foreign rivals. This superstition distorts the thinking not only of Trumpkins and Sandersnistas but, indeed, of the a majority of the general public – including a distressingly large number of intellectuals. Crony capitalists, of course, are delighted by the prevalence of this superstition.
