Herbert Spencer Quotes
Unlike private enterprise which quickly modifies its actions to meet emergencies — … the law-made instrumentality lumbers on under all varieties of circumstances at its habitual rate. By its very nature it is fitted only for average requirements, and inevitably fails under unusual requirements.
Most Americans believe that the discovery of the inferiority of government operations compared to the businesses world was made in the latter part of the 20th century. But here is a famous Englishman in 1891 telling the world in his publication.
Herbert Spencer, 1820-1903, British Social Philosopher & Economist, Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative, “Over-Legislation”, 1891
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the legal and regulatory system While this is generally true, the same very efficient private organziations sometimes act very efficiently against the interest of the public, or a part of the public in a discriminatory manner. There are other functions which for one reason or another no private organization chooses to take on, and we are left with government doing the best it can. And there are some areas where th cost of private service is just too high, and government assumes it for reasons of affordability. However sometimes there is a major problem created by competitive private organzaitions in such heated competition that the servie is terrible. In early America, Fire Fighting was assumed by private organzations, who would often fight with one another over who would handle the fire while entire neighborhoods burned down. The result was public fire service which is now the norm despite the fact that there might be better ervice in with a private company. America has attemted to balance this problem and tends to have done so better than most countries athough the issue is in contant debate in American politics.
Von Mises was one of the few right wing conservatives who would admit that private business could not operate government functions well. It was the very nature of government service and operation which makes its operation inimical to profit making business practices and methods.
Government officials are not clairvoyant and cannot foretell the future, So all government policies and programs are created and managed with some uncertainty. Some conservatives complain that business in order to thrive needs to have certainty. However, if businesses had certainty in what they did, few would ever lose money or fail. Brooks explained that there is no way any government can supply certainty even about its own policies and programs unless it is willing to give up the option of dealing with any unexpected circumstances.
During The Depression although business in general was doing very poorly, there were a few which had grown immensely powerful and abused the power as there was little or no regulation at the time.
Jefferson is the hero of the “small government” enthusiasts of modern times. In his day it was the conservative Federalists who wanted a larger government while the Jeffersonians, the radicals of the day argued for smaller government. Jefferson not only favored smaller government, but he actually cut the size of the Federal workforce something which in modern times no president has done except for William Clinton.
Many people think that running a corporation is good training and demonstrates the ability to run the country. However, business leaders who have come into government, almost all like Breton, think the two are very different.
Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, anthropologist, and sociologist famous for his hypothesis of social Darwinism whereby superior physical force shapes history. Spencer originated the expression "survival of the fittest", which he coined in Principles of Biology (1864) after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. The term strongly suggests natural selection, yet Spencer saw evolution as extending into realms of sociology and ethics, so he also supported Lamarckism.
