These functions of government are based on the fundamental understanding that the citizens are the bosses, the principals, and the politicians and bureaucrats their temporarily elected or appointed agents. Worldwide experience has shown that, in most circumstances, only well-protected individuals and firms can make the right choices and find the right knowledge to advance, as far as possible, the material and psychological well-being of all. As experience with central planning has shown time and again, government agencies simply lack theknowledge to choose what is in the best long-term interest of the people.