“Government control gives rise to fraud, suppression of Truth, intensification of the black market and artificial scarcity. Above all, it unmans the people and deprives them of initiative, it undoes the teaching of self-help…”
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About this quote
Heavy top-down control tends to breed the very disorder it claims to prevent: rules people cannot meet get gamed, honest reporting gives way to cover-ups, and, worst of all, people stop solving their own problems because someone else is meant to. Initiative withers once it is no longer needed.
When to use it
- A manager who signs off on every tiny decision, so staff stop thinking and just wait for approval.
- Rent capped so far below cost that apartments vanish from the market and quiet side deals appear to get around it.
- A household where one parent controls every dollar, and the children never learn to budget on their own.