In his excellent A Conflict of Visions, Thomas Sowell points out that people with the constrained vision tend to emphasize social processes while people with the unconstrained vision tend to emphasize social outcomes. Here, Steve Horwitz asks a good set of questions on process costs. In this video, Reason.tv discusses the process by which the government might increase its intervention in health care (HT: Cafe Hayek).
The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it. -Adam Smith
