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… is from page 15 of James Coolidge Carter’s posthumously published 1907 volume, Law: Its Origin, Growth and Function [2]:
It may possibly be found that human conduct is in a very large degree self-regulating, and that the extent to which it can be affected by the conscious interference of man is much narrower than is commonly supposed.
DBx: Those who understand this truth understand reality – and to understand reality is to understand that reality isn’t optional. (Apologies to Thomas Sowell for stealing the crux of his phrase.) Those who don’t understand this truth believe that wishes can become real if only wishes are wished hard enough, wished by the right people, wished with noble intentions – and backed with coercion.
Are some workers’ incomes lower than seems acceptable to professors of English? No problem: order the police to order every employer to cease and desist from paying workers wages that the professors of English feel are too low. Low incomes disappear! Do some public-policy pundits fancy that it would be swell for more workers to have paid family leave? No problem: order the police to order employers to put the pundits’ scheme into practice. More workers now have paid leave with no offsetting downsides! Do some economists have data showing an increase in income differences? No problem: raise taxes on the rich and give the proceeds to the poor. (After all, they earned this money by simply being poor.) Equity and fairness will flourish with no inconvenient declines in overall material well-being.