… is from page 7 of the 1990 Transaction Publishers reprint of W.H. Hutt‘s 1936 volume, Economists and the Public:
My subsequent attempts to outline the sort of institutions which would make for greater equality have led me to the conclusion that the basis of any equality which is compatible with liberty, and hence secure, has to be “consumers’ impartiality”. Consumers separated from producers by the market are obviously indifferent to producers’ status, and competition is therefore privilege-dissolving.
All restrictions on trade (such as tariffs and occupational licensing) and all government subsidies (such as the export subsidies doled out by that great geyser of cronyism, the U.S. Export-Import Bank) are unjustified privileges – private legislation – that prevent consumers from spending their money as they choose and, hence, stymie competition and protect from market forces certain producers.
