Hazlitt's benefit of the doubt

"We can still believe in the sincerity and good intentions of these people, but only by assuming an appalling lack of understanding on their part of the most elementary economic principles."*

* This refers specifically to proponents of a universal minimum income, who were thick on the ground at the time of his book 'Man versus the Welfare State' (1969), but can be generally applied to advocates of socialist, interventionist, managerialist policies.

The quote is taken from the chapter 'Income without work'.