"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand."
— Milton Friedman
If You Put The Federal Government
If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand.
About this quote
This quip is widely attributed to Friedman and appears in various forms across his lectures, television appearances, and writings. It illustrates his argument that government management of resources tends to produce scarcity through misallocation, price distortion, and bureaucratic inefficiency — even when the underlying resource is abundant. Friedman used similar examples throughout his public career to make the costs of government intervention vivid and accessible to general audiences.
Source
Attributed, widely quoted from lectures
