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no other way, it becomes clear that the information age is as old as
economies that have relied largely on private property, voluntary exchange,
and market prices to coordinate economic activity. Indeed, much of the
value from the recent improvements in communication technology comes

from increasing the speed and convenience with which we can access the
information contained in market prices.
How Government Censorship Distorts and Destroys Information

Governments can facilitate the coordination made possible by the
communication of the information of time and place through market
prices by protecting our liberty, enforcing property rights, establishing
an impartial judiciary, and maintaining a currency of stable value. Some

would argue that the wealthy democracies are wealthy because their
governments do a good job carrying out these basic functions.
Unfortunately, even those governments that are most exemplary at

pursuing policies consistent with a productive market order are not very
exemplary in this regard. Even the best governments could improve the
quantity and quality of the information made available by doing far less

than they do now because so much of what they do now distorts, or
outlaws altogether, market communication. A host of government
policies restrict market exchanges, and by doing so render useless,

important information that is “out there” and which would, without
those policies, be transmitted to those best able to utilize it to improve
our lives. In addition, much of the information critical to making better
economic decisions is not “out there”—it simply does not exist without

voluntary exchanges and is being systematically destroyed by
government restrictions on those exchanges.
But whether government policies that hamper market exchanges

destroy vital information or just suppress and distort it, they are a
destructive form of censorship that reduces communication, restricts
liberty, wastes resources, undermines social coordination, and makes
hypocrites of politicians who claim credit for promoting the

“information age.” We now consider a few examples of government
censorship from a large menu of possibilities.

Government-Financed and-Operated Schools
Virtually everyone is in favor of good schools, which means
schools communicating important information to students. But few
people seem to recognize that communicating information to parents and

students about schools and about parents and students to schools is
critical to having good schools. This lack of recognition, along with the