With a thorough understanding, data on any particular problem can be organized quickly and the problem can be analyzed intelligently. Every practical policy flows from some theory of causation, and every theory carries some implications for control or treatment. Similarly, another theory indicates that each person is a purely rational being whose actions are determined by coldly rational and logical calculation. Both conservatives and liberals support economic policies derived equally from economic theory. One prefers the positive benefits of profit-seeking for society improvement, the other supports the need to remove gross inequalities in income if society is to progress.
Sound theory is tested by successful application.
In the field of social policy, the truly practical persons are those who know and understand the theoretical underpinnings of their recommendations, who know how they have worked out elsewhere, and who have some factual basis for predicting their effectiveness. Some people find the study of social problems upsetting. For some others, social imperfections may become almost an obsession such that the suffering, frustration, and waste of a problem-ridden society overrides all hope of reform. A sense of perspective means that present social problems are neither evaded nor exaggerated. Some modern problems have become problems because our values now define as undesirable certain behavior that earlier generations found less objectionable, - our standards of public morality are higher than those of our ancestors.