Economic Statistics

A just government, one that confines itself to protecting the citizens' rights to life, liberty, and property, has no need for figures on the distribution of personal income; no need for data on international trade and finance; no need for national income and product accounts. None of these statistics can assist in the defense of the citizens' just rights. Such figures belong to "political arithmetic." They are raw materials for rent-seekers and government officials who would make government an engine of predation and a destroyer of just rights.

-- Robert Higgs