Quote of the Day – Milton Friedman

Thanks to BizzyBlog for the following:

The ultimate fate of China depends, I believe, on whether it continues to move in Hong Kong’s direction faster than Hong Kong moves in China’s.

(Hong Kong’s current leader, Donald) Tsang insists that he only wants the government to act “when there are obvious imperfections in the operation of the market mechanism.” That ignores the reality that if there are any “obvious imperfections,” the market will eliminate them long before Mr. Tsang gets around to it. Much more important are the “imperfections”–obvious and not so obvious–that will be introduced by overactive government.

Mainlaind China’s cheerleaders are hoping that the Communist country will do something no other Communist country has voluntarily done without government capitulation or overthrow — convert to a dominant ethic of free-market capitalism. Excuse me if I’m skeptical of it happening, especially as the BizzyBlog Internet Wall of Shame members continue to help the mainland’s leaders perfect its police state.