Albert Jay Nock on Education (lfb.org)
- Highlight Loc. 70-75 | Added on Thursday, March 08, 2012, 03:48 PM
Nock’s first law of social order was named after his friend Edward E. Epstean from whom he first heard the principle. As rephrased in Free Speech and Plain Language, the law is, “Man tends to satisfy his needs and desires with the least possible exertion. Not, it must be understood, that he always does so satisfy them, for other considerations principle, convention, fear, superstition or what not may supervene; but he always tends to satisfy them with the least possible exertion, and, in the absence of a stronger motive, will always do so.” Nock applied this law to the political means. He believed that as long as the State could “confer an economic advantage at the mere touch of a button,” people would maneuver to “get at the button, because law-made property is acquired with less exertion than labour-made property.”
