Price Controls – Everything Can Be Measured In Anything

Price Controls - Everything Can Be Measured In Anything by Donald J. Boudreaux, Foundation For Economic Education

The magic of market prices

In The Road to Serfdom, F.A. Hayek makes an elaborate and important point that is summarized nicely, I think, by this key observation by David Friedman (recently mentioned in a comment on this post by Walter Clark):

Economists are often accused of believing that everything — health, happiness, life itself — can be measured in money. What we actually believe is even odder. We believe that everything can be measured in anything.

Among the many benefits of the price system, unfettered by government-imposed price controls, is that market-set prices allow each buyer to pay for the things he buys with the particular...