… is from page 187 of the 2016 Mercatus Center re-issue of my late colleague Don Lavoie’s deep, excellent, and still-relevant 1985 volume National Economic Planning: What Is Left?:
It is indicative of a peculiar view of society when the (voluntary) actions of millions of market participants are dismissed as inaction merely because active (coercive) involvement by the government is minimized.
DBx: To offer the counsel “Let the market handle it” is not, contrary to what many people mistakenly suppose, advice that is simplistic and pollyannaish. Quite the opposite. To let the market handle matters is to allow as many creative minds as are willing to put their own efforts and resources on the line in their quests to address whatever problems exist, and it is to use the most effective and reliable of tests – market competition – to judge and to monitor the efforts. What is simplistic and pollyannaish is to say “Let the government handle it.”
