… is from page 106 of the profound 1976 Vol. II (“The Mirage of Social Justice”) of F.A. Hayek’s trilogy, Law, Legislation, and Liberty:
If we wish everybody to be well off, we shall get closer to our goal, not by commanding by law that this should be achieved, or giving everybody a legal claim to what we think he ought to have, but by providing inducements for all to do as much as they can that will benefit others.
DBx: Indeed so. And maximum possible such inducements for each person to be as great as possible a help to as large as possible a number of strangers is provided by undistorted market prices, along with the corresponding profits and losses.


If we wish everybody to be well off, we shall get closer to our goal, not by commanding by law that this should be achieved, or giving everybody a legal claim to what we think he ought to have, but by providing inducements for all to do as much as they can that will benefit others.
