name that quote

04 Jan 2010

A choice quote, via Rev:

Nor is there any reason why the state should not assist the individuals in providing for those common hazards of life against which, because of their uncertainty, few individuals can make adequate provision. Where, as in the case of sickness and accident, neither the desire to avoid such calamities nor the efforts to overcome their consequences are as a rule weakened by the provision of assistance - where, in short, we deal with genuinely insurable risks - the case for the state’s helping to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance is very strong… Wherever communal action can mitigate disasters against which the individual can neither attempt to guard himself nor make the provision for the consequences, such communal action should undoubtedly be taken.

Name that quote. Marx? Lenin? Hillary Clinton?

Nope.. Friedrich Hayek, from The Road To Serfdom. It reminds me of this quote – another similar example. Both prove that the great thinkers of our time were just that – thinkers. They weren’t inflexible ideologues or dogmatic tyrants, and they were all capable of going down some surprisingly uncharacteristic roads of thought.