The naïveté with which the philosophy of “natural” economics ignored the effect upon industry and commerce of the legal status of property, the way in which it identified wealth and property in the legal form in which the latter had existed, is almost incredible to-day.
Dewey critiques the simplistic view of economics that overlooks the legal implications of property.
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Mistakes pile up and consolidate themselves into laws and methods of administration which are more harmful than the consequences which they were originally intended to control.
They are made that way; it is “the nature of the beast.” We do not gain anything by inserting instincts to run, creep, swim and fly between the structure and the act.
The relationships of husband and wife, parent and children, older and younger children, friend and friend, are the bonds from which authority proceeds.
The idea remains barren and empty save as it is incarnated in human relationships.