Who was it who said that a government has 鈥渢he duty of erecting and
maintaining certain public works and certain public institutions, which it can
never be for the interest of any individual, or small number of individuals, to
erect and maintain鈥? Franklin Roosevelt? No, it was that most famous of
free-marketeers, Adam Smith. In Teachings from the Worldly Philosophy (W. W.
Norton , $27.50, ISBN 0 393 03919 6), you can read the great economists鈥
own words, with only a little entertaining direction from editor Robert
Heilbroner.
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