There was no positive role for the state in Ricardo's vision. Indeed, the one thing that had to be avoided was any attempt by the state to cushion market adjustments, disruptive though such adjustments were. As Ricardo opined, even if "the condition of the laborers is most wretched," government should not try to compensate their lot. Attempts to "amend the condition of the poor … instead of making the poor rich … make the rich poor." As such, the proper role of the state is to teach the poor the "value of independence" rather than to alter the distributions of the market. The state should police the frontiers of property, but it should not alter the distributions of that property.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 309