Optimistic about free markets

Words of optimism from Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute:

Though my colleagues at the Adam Smith Institute regard me as the 'down' man, always seeing the difficulties presented by any new idea, underneath I'm really an optimist. I really believe that the free market will triumph, despite everything that our system of government conspires to do to shackle it. The free market is an entirely natural system, like evolution itself, which grows and adapts whatever adversity it faces. You can concrete over a path but still, before long, the grass pokes through. So do markets.

Butler is optimistic that the UK will sort out its tax and benefits system, and adopt a flat tax on income and a negative income tax to relieve poverty. He sees positives in the first tentative proposals of the coalition government in general and of the welfare and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith in particular, he thinks that we can see the first green blades of common sense breaking through. He is an optimistic man indeed! I just hope he's right.