Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 298 of William Easterly’s brilliant 2025 book, Violent Saviors: The West’s Conquest of the Rest [footnote deleted; link added]:

The Friedman’s [Milton and Rose] liked markets because they could make individual self-determination possible for all groups. Markets allowed “the freedom of individuals to pursue their own objective.” Markets made this possible as long as interactions between individuals were consensual rather than coercive. They celebrated Adam Smith’s key insight: If there is a right to choose, then exchange will take place one if both parties believe they will benefit. The Friedman’s continued the long liberal fight to recognize individual choice as a good thing in itself; it was the whole basis of a beneficial market economy.