"Say that you hire me to mow your lawn and afterwards you pay me $30. What I have earned might be thought of as certificates of performance, i.e. proof that I served you. With these certificates of performance in hand, I visit my grocer and demand 3 pounds of steak and a six-pack of beer that my fellow man produced. In effect, the grocer asks, "Williams, you're demanding that your fellow man, as ranchers and brewers, serve you; what did you do in turn to serve your fellow man?" I say, "I mowed my fellow man’s lawn." The grocer says, "Prove it!" That's when I hand over my certificates of performance -- the $30."
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Journalists from the United StatesColumnists from the United StatesPeople from PhiladelphiaAfrican AmericansEconomists from the United States
Original Language: English
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Markets, Governments, and the Common Good, speech at Hillsdale College (27 September 2007)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Walter_E._Williams
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Walter E. Williams
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