…comes from Armen Alchian’s 1961 RAND Corp. publication Some Economics of Property, as reprinted on page 43 of the Liberty Fund edition of The Collected Works of Armen A. Alchian: Vol 2: Property Rights and Economic Behavior [original footnote]:
I should, I suppose, avow at random intervals that all this is not a condemnation of public ownership any more than certain “deficiencies” of marriage, the human eye, the upright position of the human being, or smoking are to be regarded as condemnations of marriage, eyes, walking on two feet, or smoking. The “lesser” evils in some institution – and they exist in all – are borne for the greater good in some of them. We are not arguing that private property even in its purest form is perfect in the cost-bearing sense. No standard of perfection is available. All of our statements have been comparative in degrees of…
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