"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand"

The quote is a satirical remark by Milton Friedman, an American economic expert and Nobel Prize winner. He is suggesting that the federal government is not effective and efficient in handling large-scale operations, such as managing the vast Sahara Desert. Furthermore, he recommends that the government's management of the desert would result in incompetence and ineffectiveness, causing a scarcity of sand (which abounds in the Sahara). It is a commentary on the belief that federal government management can frequently lead to ineffectiveness and waste.