John Stossel
John Stossel
John Frank Stosselis an American consumer television personality, author, and libertarian pundit. In October 2009, Stossel left his long-time employment at ABC News to join the Fox Business Channel and Fox News Channel. He is the host of a weekly news show on Fox Business, Stossel, which was first broadcast on December 10, 2009. Stossel also regularly provides analysis, appearing on various Fox News programs, which include weekly appearances on The O'Reilly Factor. He also writes a Fox News Blog,...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth6 March 1947
CountryUnited States of America
Prosperity comes from leaving people free in a legal system that respects their persons and property so they can pursue their dreams while taking responsibility for their actions.
As coercive monopolies that spend other people's money taken by force, governments are uniquely unqualified to solve problems. They are riddled by ignorance, perverse incentives, incompetence and self-serving.
Most people are oblivious to F.A. Hayek's insight that the critical information needed to run an economy - or even 15 percent of one - doesn't exist in any one place where it is accessible to central planners. Instead, it is scattered piecemeal among millions of people. All those people put together are far wiser and better informed than Congress could ever be. Only markets - private property, free exchange and the price system - can put this knowledge at the disposal of entrepreneurs and consumers, ensuring the system will serve the people and not just the political class.
Politicians and bureaucrats clearly have no idea how complicated markets are. Every day people make countless tradeoffs, in all areas of life, based on subjective value judgements and personal information as they delicately balance their interest, needs and wants. Who is in a better position than they to tailor those choices to best serve their purposes? Yet the politicians believe they can plan the medical market the way you plan a birthday party.
The happiest stutterers, I learned, are those who are willing to stutter in front of others.
The market performs miracles so routinely that we take it for granted. Supermarkets provide 30,000 choices at rock-bottom prices. We take it for granted that when we stick a piece of plastic in a wall, cash will come out; that when we give the same plastic to a stranger, he will rent us a car, and the next month, VISA will have the accounting correct to the penny. By contrast, 'experts' in government can't even count the vote accurately.
Nothing keeps a company honest and efficient like the threat of other companies coming along and taking its business away.
Madoff's scam was small compared to Ponzi schemes the government itself runs: Social Security and Medicare.