At 01:03 PM 2/6/2007, Mason Gaffney wrote:

>I believed and taught that for some years, but now am having doubts. Means
>and ends are not so easily separated; so often the means becomes the end.
>"Goal displacement" is a phrase for it. One aspect of it, Virgil called
>"auri sacra fames", the accursed lust for gold.

Aristotle understood this confusion of means and 
ends, and it was for him the distinction between 
natural and unnatural exchange. In natural 
exchange, we work to get the money for oiko-nomic 
reasons, That is, for proper "household 
management." The point of the economic was simply 
to have the material means to support the family. 
But if the means become ends in themselves, then 
the exchange becomes unnatural in the sense of 
having no natural limit. Think about going to the 
store to buy bread. You would buy, if you are 
able, as much bread as the family needed, and no 
more. The exchange has an in-built limitation. 
But if making money is your only goal, you might 
buy up every loaf of bread in hopes of cornering 
the market and making a large profit. There is no 
natural limit on such exchanges, only contingent 
limits, such as the amount of market power your wealth commands.


John C. Medaille