At this late date, it is almost trite for a free marketeer to remark that the government’s efforts to muck around in markets routinely yield nasty and unintended results. “This is the persistent tendency of man to see only the immediate effects of a given policy, or its effects only on a special group, and to neglect to inquire what the long-run effects of that policy will be not only on that special group but on all groups,” economist Henry Hazlitt wrote. “It is the fallacy of overlooking secondary consequences.” Inattention to those things not easily seen ends in grave damage inflicted upon forgotten men. Regulators and bureaucrats, however, habitually neglect this fact. Free marketeers, therefore, must continue to repeat themselves.
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