there's no better author to to read than freedic hayek. he is iconic among conservatives.e truly a great economist. one of the greatest economists in the 20th seize pry. what should the government do according to him? two things. a minimum basic safety net for the indigent. he says that. it's crazy stuff. i had a friend of mine, very strong libertarian and we were having an argument. i said look, a safety net conservatives and libertarians don't have to be against it. hayek said that. he writes back in the e-mail. itself from was a scwish. [laughter] minimum basic safety net. the answer is dealing with cases where markets fail. they do fail sometimes. the burden is really high to get involved in marketeds. we have to have a source of market failure. the market has to fail. the government has to be able to interstrene and do so cost effectively. the huge barrier and generally speaking when we see a source of market failure. the government shouldn't get involved. one of these cases is a case of what economists call externalities. it is a case where individuals or firms effec