… is from page 283 of the 1999 Liberty Fund edition of my late colleagues James M. Buchanan’s and Gordon Tullock’s seminal 1962 book, The Calculus of Consent:
Empirical reality must have its ultimate effect on analytical models, even if this reality contains implications about human behavior that scholars with strongly held ethical ideals find difficult to accept.
DBx: Election to political office does not transform ordinary human beings into saintly demigods or demigoddesses. Appointment to high government office does not impart superhuman knowledge or wisdom or rectitude to those appointed.
Of course, you say “Of course.” But examine any of the many proposals for government to do this or that – to reduce inequality, to promote “the industries of the future,” to repatriate “supply chains,” to “protect” the middle-class, to meddle in the economy in ways that, We the People are assured, will bring to all of us riches, equity, security, fulfillment, dignity, and pride. Examine them. Nearly all such schemes – whether offered by profs on the left, pols in the center, or pundits on the right – presume angelic demigods and demigoddesses.
Childishness reigns.
