My absolute favorite Milton Freidman anecdote:
While traveling by car in China, Professor Milton Friedman spotted scores of road builders moving earth with shovels instead of modern machinery.
When he asked why powerful equipment wasn’t used instead of so many laborers, his host told him it was to keep employment high in the construction industry. If they used tractors or modern road building equipment, fewer people would have jobs was his host’s logic.
“Then instead of shovels, why don’t you give them spoons and create even more jobs?” Friedman inquired.
Absolutely adore MF. I have watched hours of his lectures. Wish I would have seen them during my undergraduate days.