In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?

Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

Hayek explains in “The Constitution of Liberty” that if people have freedom to do what they want without restriction by government, as long as they do not harm others, people can try things out. People can make mistakes, but better ways of doing things will be discovered, and copied. By a process of natural selection of ideas, we will all gradually make more efficient use of resources, and technology, and we will become richer. Government involvement in production will slow this process down.

Transcript: Reagan’s first Inaugural Address, 1981.