I have often been surprised that Statesmen dared to endorse the responsibility of such a policy.

James Deacon Hume, translated by Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 3, pages 430 to 435 (in French)
1838

I do not know the date of this hearing of James Deacon Hume in parliament but as the object was to prepare the 1839 budget, I assume that it dates back to sometime in the previous year. He was then secretary at the Board of Trade and the discussion looks into the consequences of protective tariffs (bad consequences – this is a tax levied on the consumer but received by the producer rather than the government).

I chose today’s quote because, if it is here applying to politicians imposing protective tariffs (which is still relevant today), we can expect it to be applicable to numerous other political actions that are essentially bad and would in no case be beneficial to the nation as a whole (which does not mean they cannot be beneficial to a small subset of the population, viz. the crooks and friends of decision makers). The fact that James Hume is surprised by that shows how naive we can be towards politicians who are idealised as elected representatives to do good and to whom we ascribe our good intentions. Close to two hundred years later, it is high time we see them for what they are – fallible individuals at best and, for lots of them, genuine psychopaths.