268 ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES

may be of an importance far outweighing the correlative
advantage secured by those who gain; common action, by
voluntary co-operation to resist the infliction of the injury,
may not be capable of being secured in any other way than
by action of the government on behalf of the majority of
the governed. There are, too, not a few cases in which the
assumption that individuals know best what is to their interest
is obviously not justified by the facts of the case.
An illustration of the latter point is afforded by the case of
the insane and feeble-minded. To permit such persons to
exercise liberty of contract would be to give them the right
of inflicting injury on themselves, and on others, without any
counterbalancing advantage. The position of children is an
even better illustration of the desirability of limiting freedom
in some cases. Children are incapable of judging the effects
of acts, and are also, in general, subject to the influence of
others whose interests conflict with those of the children.
Restraint on the acts of children may, therefore, be economically
 justifiable because they lack the power of sound
judgment as to the adaptation of means to ends, and may
be expected to use unrestrained liberty to their own hurt.
Further, restraint on the acts of parents or guardians in
reference to children is often justifiable, on the ground that
the acts of such parents or guardians are apt to be dictated
by considerations of apparent present advantage, and that the
advantage they seek is their own rather than that of the
children in too many cases. The interests of the community
are concerned with the future of the children quite as much
as their present or that of their parents or guardians, and
interference in that behalf is likely to yield a balance of
advantage where similar interference with adults, on their own
behalf, would be inexpedient.
Such interference often takes the form of requiring the
child to devote its time to education, instead of to industrial
employment, until the attainment of a certain specified age.
This limits the freedom, not only of children, but of parents
and of employers, Present product is sacrificed in the hope of
securing a largely increased productive efficiency in the future.
Wealth is consumed in producing an instructed populace