The man of system… is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it…
He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board.
He does not consider that in the great chess-board of human society, every single piece has a principle of motion of its own, altogether different from that which the legislature might choose to impress upon
Adam Smith on the fatal conceit
19 Jun 2014 1 Comment
in Adam Smith Tags: The fatal conceit, The wealth of nations
Lindsay Mitchell
Nov 15, 2014 @ 08:43:17
That is a beautiful quote. In matters of policy, it seems that unless you have an alternative govt ‘solution’ you cannot have a credible view. Yet my favoured improved way is nearly always for government not to have a policy and leave individuals alone to rediscover their own life-enhancing, self-preserving and positively productive behaviours.
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