Statistics: Achilles' Heel of Government
Murray Rothbard wrote: The burgeoning of government statistics offers several obvious evils to the libertarian. In the first place, it is clear that too many resources are being channeled into statistics-gathering and statistics-production. Given a wholly free market, the amount of labor, land, and capital resources devoted to statistics would dwindle to a small fraction of the present total. Furthermore, the great bulk of statistics is gathered by government coercion. This not only means that they are products of unwelcome activities; it also means that the true cost of these statistics to the American public is much greater than the mere amount of tax money spent by the government agencies. But there are other important, and not so obvious, reasons for the libertarian to regard government statistics with dismay. Not only do statistics gathering and producing go beyond the governmental function of defense of persons and property; not only are economic resources wasted and misallocated, and the taxpayers, industry, small business, and the consumer burdened. But, furthermore, statistics are, in a crucial sense, critical to all interventionist and socialist activities of government. FULL ARTICLE
Comments (2)
Phillip Conti
I have to agree with Rothbard, the very use of statistics and their perceived importance in society even by private industry is the result of socialistic ideologies.
Published: May 30, 2007 12:44 PM
Hyrum
This article is another example of intelligence verses government. And again intelligence comes out on top. Whenever there is a drive to add another layer of government there are always those clever statistics to trying to back it up.
Published: May 31, 2007 1:49 AM