“Our freedom of choice in a competitive society rests on the fact that, if one person refuses to satisfy our wishes, we can turn to another. But if we face a monopolist we are at his absolute mercy. And an authority directing the whole economic system of the country would be the most powerful monopolist conceivable…it would have complete power to decide what we are to be given and on what terms. It would not only decide what commodities and services were to be available and in what quantities; it would be able to direct their distributions between persons to any degree it liked.”

― Friedrich August von Hayek, The Road to Serfdom

Birthdays:

1685 John Gay, English poet and dramatist (The Beggar’s Opera).

1671 Teodorico Pedrini, Italian Vincentian priest, musician and composer. Sonata Op. 3 No. 1 a violino solo col basso del Nepridi, Adagio and Allegro, and Sonata X – Les Barocudas

1930 Thomas Sowell, American economist and social theorist.

MISCELLANY:

SOMEONE YOU SHOULD KNOW: Thomas Sowell

FOCUSED PROTECTION: The Great Barrington Declaration

SCIENCE, ETHICS, AND THE NUREMBERG CODE: Declaration of Canadian Physicians for Science and Truth

RELATED: Collateral Global