Howard Zinn Quotes

All depressions are caused by government interference and the cure is always offered to take more of the poison that caused the disaster. Depressions are not the result of a free economy.

It is time that we dispensed with the myth that the market is a force of nature that should not be meddled with. Markets are social creations that can be, and have been, modified for social purposes.

I've made it very clear that the government should get out of the business of trying to affect the markets, of trying to pick winners and losers.

No matter how deeply wedded one may be to the free enterprise system (and I, for one, am wedded for life), one has to accept the need for positive government; one has to consider government action on a sizable scale as desirable rather than as a necessary evil.

Candidly, I believe most corporations actually don't mind big government.

I've never been antiregulation. I've always believed that raw, unregulated capitalism doesn't work.

When the government gets involved in pricing, I don't think it's the right way to look at a business.

Markets are smart and governments are dumb.

The existence of a free market does not of course eliminate the need for government. On the contrary, government is essential both as a forum and for determining the “rules of the game”.

Depressions and mass unemployment are not caused by the free market but by government interference in the economy.

Laissez-faire is finished. The all-powerful market that always knows best is finished.

There is no such thing as a free market.

All the evils, abuses, and iniquities, popularly ascribed to businessmen and to capitalism, were not caused by an unregulated economy or by a free market, but by government intervention into the economy.

[E]conomic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics

It is impossible to objectively define how free a market is. This is a political definition. Government is always involved, and those free marketers are as politically motivated as anyone.

Basically, the myth is that America has been founded on the free market; the government has done very little; it has thrived under free trade. But actually, if you look at the history, this is actually the country that has succeeded most with protectionist policies.

We no longer have a free market in the United States, we have a government controlled free market.

An orthodox belief in big government's inefficiency cannot coexist with an orthodox belief in private industry's inability to compete with big government.

I do not believe that the government is in any position to say exactly how every single business and every single activity shall reach those performances.

The New Deal's enmity for that system of free and competitive private enterprise which we call capitalism was fundamental.

I don't think that capitalism should be unbridled, if by 'unbridled' you mean unregulated.

Let's not allow the voice of the people to be overwhelmed by the siren song of those who opposed regulation, who demanded that government should stand aside and let finance and business run the show.

Government 'help' to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.

Many markets work best with little or no outside interference. But others - especially those subject to big 'externalities' - need a helping hand.

Today it is not big business that we have to fear. It is big government.