In this essay reprinted from Social Forces in 1926, Glenn E. Hoover laments the state of economic science. He suggests that because important political-economy decisions do not naturally fall to individuals with better knowledge and stronger motivation to make the decisions right, but rather are the province of citizens, opinion makers, and politicos at large, we cannot expect economic understanding and economic policy to remain on a steady path of progress, or even too maintain itself, unless due attention is given to the perennial threat of popular degradation.