There is no such thing as “the public interest” except as the sum of the
interests of individual men. And the basic, common interest of all men—all
rational men—is freedom. Freedom is the first requirement of “the public
interest”—not what men do when they are free, but that they are free. All
their achievements rest on that foundation—and cannot exist without it.
The principles of a free, non-coercive social system are the only form of “the
public interest.”