Focus on Incentives, Ignore ‘Good Intentions’. Keith Knight & Joseph Solis-Mullen.

by | Mar 5, 2026

Focus on Incentives, Ignore ‘Good Intentions’. Keith Knight & Joseph Solis-Mullen.

by | Mar 5, 2026

The current President can teach us a lot about how incentives can alter a persons behavior.
 
Assume you agree with me, that Trump is a nefarious actor.
 
Was Trump more of a threat to humanity in the voluntary sector, or the political sector?
 
The Progressive world-view would predict: In the greedy private sector Trump exploited people. Now, as a public servant, Trump creates value by serving us, the collective.
 
The opposite is true.
 
Market advocates recognize the inevitability of humans being self-interested actors, using the freedom of (dis)association as the ultimate check and balance against wrongdoers.

The consumers are merciless. They never buy in order to benefit a less efficient producer and to protect him against the consequences of his failure to manage better. They want to be served as well as possible. And the working of the capitalist system forces the entrepreneur to obey the orders issued by the consumers.

– Ludwig von Mises, Bureaucracy, p. 37

Book discussed: Classical Liberalism: Rise, Fall, and Future of an Idea by Joseph Solis-Mullen

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Keith Knight

Keith Knight

Keith Knight is Managing Editor at the Libertarian Institute, host of the Don't Tread on Anyone podcast and editor of The Voluntaryist Handbook: A Collection of Essays, Excerpts, and Quotes.

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