“It appeared that the whole world was one elaborate system, opposed to justice and kindness, and set to making cruelty and pain. And he and his father were part of that system, and must help to maintain it in spite of themselves.
Their frail human nature was subjected to a strain greater than it was made for; the fires of greed had been lighted in their hearts, and fanned to a white heat that melted every principle and every law.”
Upton Sinclair, Oil
“A laissez-faire economic theory is maintained in an industrial era through the ignorant belief that the general welfare is best served by placing the least possible political restraints upon economic activity.
The history of the past hundred years is a refutation of the theory; but it is still maintained, or is dying a too lingering death.”
Reinhold Niebuhr, Moral Man and Immoral Society, 1932
