Economics and Government

Here is an interesting addendum from Jane Jacobs:

"But in the schools of planning and architecture, and in Congress, state legislatures and city halls too, the Decentrists' ideas were gradually accepted as basic guides for dealing constructively with big cities themselves. This is the most amazing event in the whole sorry tale: that finally people who sincerely wanted to strengthen great cities should adopt recipes frankly devised for undermining their economies and killing them." (21)

Is this perhaps an amazing truth with respect to government more generally? People in government want to help and to choose a better course, yet it seems quite commonplace for many of those people to choose to support public policies that move in quite the opposite direction.