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Quotation of the Day…

… is from chapter 1 of William Graham Sumner’s 1885 book, Protectionism: the -ism Which Teaches that Waste Makes Wealth (original emphasis):

If a state well performed its functions of providing peace, order and security, as conditions under which the people could live and work, it would be the proudest proof of its triumphant success that it had nothing to do – that all went so smoothly that it had only to look on and was never called to interfere; just as it is the test of a good business man that his business runs on smoothly and prosperously while he is not harassed or hurried.

DBx: True. But most people who successfully pursue careers in politics are people who pursue those careers precisely to interfere in the affairs of other people. These are people who are unusually greedy for attention and fame, as well as control, and who satisfy their greed by prominently ordering other people about.

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