“The beneficial effect of State intervention, especially in the form of legislation, is direct, immediate, and, so to speak, visible, whilst its evil effects are gradual and indirect, and lie out of sight.... Nor… do most people keep in mind that State inspectors may be incompetent, careless, or even occasionally corrupt… Hence the majority of mankind must almost of necessity look with undue favour upon governmental intervention. This natural bias can be counteracted only by the existence, in a given society, as in England between 1830 and 1860, of a presumption or prejudice in favour of individual liberty—that is, of laissez faire. The mere decline, therefore, of faith in self-help… is of itself sufficient to account for the growth of legislation tending towards socialism.”
Albert Venn Dicey Law & Public Opinion
“Laissez faire has never been more than a slogan in defense of the proposition that every extension of state activity should be examined under a presumption of error.”
Aaron Director, quoted by Robert Bork in The Tempting of America
In my contribution to the National Post’s 20th anniversary section, I celebrate the freedom the paper has given its writers to express conservative opinions and respect the intelligence of our readers.
“we [should] form the term catallaxy to describe the object of the science we generally call economics, which then, following Whately, itself ought to be called catallactics… I am convinced that its more general adoption might really contribute to the clarity of our discussion.”
Friedrich Hayek The Fatal Conceit [Whately is Church of Ireland Archbishop Richard Whately, who evidently made the suggestion in 1838]
In my latest National Post column I say the first step toward an effective foreign policy is to abandon illusions about the effectiveness of “soft power” without something hard behind it.