… is from page xiii of Arthur Seldon’s Preface to the original, 1976 edition of my late colleague Gordon Tullock’s excellent public-choice primer, The Vote Motive:
The real reasons for government policy are rarely stated with the candour that would enable the public to understand them. Politicians seem to be playing out a public charade in which everything is explained by question-begging terms like ‘fair’, ‘reasonable’, ‘adequate’, ‘just’ and similar.
