There is no economic magic...

Just as with the compulsion to lie to children and make them believe in a magical gift giver, a belief in economic magic, and government as gift giver, is deeply embedded in our culture. Most people are blindly culture bound, so they are invulnerable to economic logic. Few people, even social scientists, can transcend their culture, and so pernicious cultural practices persist. Thus disasters such as war, the Great Depression, and the giant oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

From Fred Foldvary