… is from page 66 of the 5th edition (2015) of Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics:
Just as primitive peoples tended to attribute such things as the sway of trees in the wind to some intentional action by an invisible spirit, rather than to such systemic causes as variations in atmospheric pressure, so there is a tendency toward intentional explanations of systemic events in the economy when people are unaware of basic economic principles. For example, while rising prices are likely to reflect changes in supply and demand, people ignorant of economics may attribute price rises to “greed.”
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