Lawrence Lessig Quotes

I think that there is absolutely no free market in modern industrial states.

The great dialectic in our time is not, as anciently and by some still supposed, between capital and labor; it is between economic enterprise and the state.

Free prices are the price of freedom.

There's a difference between a free market and free-for-all market.

Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.

There's not a single country that actually approaches economics in a pure, free market, capitalist way. I like the free market - but it very much exists only in textbooks. If I had a choice, and we could live in a very pure world, I would be a supporter of the free markets.

The 'free market' is the product of laws and rules continuously emanating from legislatures, executive departments, and courts.

Liberty and monopoly cannot live together.

The picture of the free market is necessarily one of harmony and mutual benefit; the picture of State intervention is one of caste conflict, coercion, and exploitation.

There are no free financial markets in America or, for that matter, anywhere in the Western word, and few, if any, free markets of any other kind.

Socialism doesn't work. A big government doesn't work.

While admirers of capitalism, we also to a certain extent believe it has limitations that require government intervention in markets to make them work.

It is impossible to objectively define how free a market is. This is a political definition. Government is always involved, and those free marketers are as politically motivated as anyone.

We no longer have a free market in the United States, we have a government controlled free market.

In a market economy, however, the individual has some possibility of escaping from the power of the state.

When the government gets involved in pricing, I don't think it's the right way to look at a business.

There is no pure free-market economy.

I am an ardent supporter of capitalism - but I also understand that while individuals have inalienable, God-given rights, corporations do not.

All real capitalisms are impure hybrids, mongrels mixed with other strains.

My fundamental tenets are concerned with freedom of the individual; the market isn't perfect, but it's the best available way of allocating resources.

Unregulated competition is a naive metaphor for anarchy.

Free competition and the open market system as they were known in the old days, have lost their places in the system, and that the only substitute for them, in these modern times, is government regulation and control.

I believe in markets before mandates.

Capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism.

The best thing that governments can do is get out of business. When governments interfere less, managers can do their jobs better.