"In Germany a 1933 'Law for Removing the Distress of People and Reich' gave the chancellor dictatorial powers, which in turn allowed Adolf Hitler to start wars that brought unprecedented distress—indeed, devastation—to the German people and nation.

The point here is not simply that laws, policies, and programs can have counterproductive results. The point is that, when social processes are described in terms of their hoped-for results, this obscures the more fundamental question as to just what they actually do and circumvents questions as to whether doing such things is likely to lead to the results expected or proclaimed."

—Thomas Sowell