… is from pages 29-30 of the 1999 Liberty Fund edition of my late Nobel-laureate colleague Jim Buchanan’s first book – namely, his great if sadly neglected 1958 volume, Public Principles of Public Debt:
In an individualistic society which governs itself through the use of democratic political forms, the idea of the “group” or the “whole” as a sentient being is contrary to the fundamental principle of social organization. The individual or the family is, and must be, the basic philosophical entity in this society.
DBx: Jim died, at the age of 93, seven years ago today.


In an individualistic society which governs itself through the use of democratic political forms, the idea of the “group” or the “whole” as a sentient being is contrary to the fundamental principle of social organization. The individual or the family is, and must be, the basic philosophical entity in this society.
