Look around, and you see everywhere the exertions and acts of individuals restricted, regulated, or promoted, on the principle of the common welfare.
Friedrich ListRead
It is bad policy to regulate everything... where things may better regulate themselves and can be better promoted by private exertions; but it is no less bad policy to let those things alone which can only be promoted by interfering social power.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the balance needed between regulation and private initiative in society.
Friedrich List's quote reflects the idea that while it is unwise to overregulate aspects of society that are capable of self-regulation, it is equally misguided to ignore areas where social intervention is necessary. He highlights the importance of discerning where state involvement can foster better outcomes, contrasting it with the dangers of excessive interference.
Themes
RegulationPrivate InitiativeSocial PowerBalancePolicy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a debate about government policies and their impact on private businesses.
More from Friedrich List
All quotes →An individual, in promoting his own interest, may injure the public interest; a nation, in promoting the general welfare, may check the interest of a part of its members.
Friedrich ListRead
Industry entirely left to itself, would soon fall to ruin, and a nation letting everything alone would commit suicide.
Friedrich ListRead
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