Nassau Senior Quote of the Day

Today is the birthday of classical and proto-causal-realist economist Nassau Senior. It is appropriate to treat to you a quote of the day from pg. 176 (of the Kelley Reprint Edition) of his An Outline of the Science of Political Economy originally published in 1836. It is as timely as today's headlines.

. . .[G]overnments have generally supposed it to be their duty, not merely to give security but wealth; not merely to enable their subjects to produce and enjoy in safety, but to teach them what to produce and how to enjoy; to give then instruction how to manage their own concerns, and to force them to obey that instruction.Unfortunately, too the ignorance and folly with which they have attempted to execute this office have been equal to the ignorance and folly which led them to undertake it.