W. H. Hutt

In every country of the world, economic self-​rule by the people is frustrated to some extent by state intervention to protect sectional interests. By ‘economic self-​rule by the people,’ I simply mean the demo-​cratic exercise of consumers’ sovereignty. Under a free market system, income receivers as a whole control the economy through the discipline they exercise over decision-​makers, through buying or refraining from buying the services and commodities offered in the market. The present is a restrictionist, not an equalitarian or liberal age; and I know of no country in which the state forbids all creation of scarcity, that is, all action for the benefit of at least some politically powerful sections.

William H. Hutt (left, above), The Economics of the Colour Bar (1964), p. 176 – 7.