“Stiglitz believes ‘education’ should be explicitly designed to attack property rights and to weaken the sense of American exceptionalism, the tradition of classical liberalism.” ~Michael Munger
“Perhaps the easiest way to explain government failure in one lesson is to remember that there is no such thing as ‘the state.’ Instead, essential decisions about resource use will be made by political actors.” ~Michael Munger
“Kids are told they can do anything, that they are personally mighty and important. But they never have the experience of everyday effort and failure.” ~Michael Munger
“Enforcement of these emergent rules can be accomplished largely by what Adam Smith called ‘propriety,’ rather than by armed employees of the state.” ~Michael Munger
“Every small aspect of the work that people do to deliver and stock those Whole Foods grocery shelves is noble, in its own way. Dismissing the parts as meaningless fails to understand the power of the larger system.” ~Michael Munger
“Since if something is perfect, it must be desirable, a new generation of attorneys is attempting a wholesale takeover of antitrust enforcement.” ~Michael Munger
“Look at institutional arrangements as they actually play out, making the comparison by looking through two Is: information and incentives.” ~Michael Munger
“If all the cars, and apartments, have people using them, and all the tools have people making things with them, we will need far fewer of those things. We have ‘enough’ stuff, it’s just in the closet.” ~Michael Munger
“Our dependence on the ability to serve others in highly specialized ways is contingent on the rest of the system working constantly and efficiently. Our shrinking command of general competence puts us at greater risk.” ~Michael Munger
“Respect for the creators of ideas, and the words through which those ideas are conveyed in the literature, is the highest value we have in the academy.” ~Michael Munger