Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 186 of Art Carden’s and GMU Econ alum Caleb Fuller’s excellent new book, Mere Economics:

Economics shows how social benefits are largely unintended consequences of people pursuing their interests. Bill Gates’s money is his to do with as he pleases, but has likely done far more to help the world’s poor by founding and running Microsoft – which still produces most of the world’s productivity software – than he has done through the Gates Foundation. When considering any charitable undertaking, we should ask, How is this better than doing nothing? Merely describing results we might hope for is poor substitute for understanding likely consequences – and we should entertain the possibility that we do more for people by leaving our money in the bank or expanding our enterprise.