This week's quote was prompted by the past week as I was listening to an audio version of FA Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (my copy of the book is currently on loan). In the book, Hayek describes how democracies can quickly turn into centralized planned states by relying a "the will of a small minority to impose upon the people" through relying on "experts" to conduct planning exercises.
Coolidge spoke specifically about experts during an address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors on January 17, 1925:
Whoever deals with current public questions is compelled to rely greatly upon the information and judgements of experts and specialists. Unfortunately, not all experts are to be trusted as entirely disinterested.
When one thinks today about areas of government such as the IRS and Obamacare, does this statement ring true?
This is definitely true in Southeast Asia. That's how policymaking is done in the dictatorships around here.
ReplyDelete