Alan G Isaac wrote:
> On 11/14/2011 7:26 PM, James C.W. Ahiakpor wrote:
>> Now, Keynes himself, in the Preface to the German edition
>> of the /General Theory/ argues that "the theory of output
>> as a whole, which is what the following book purports to
>> provide, is much more easily adapted to the conditions of
>> a totalitarian state, than is theory of the production and
>> distribution of a given output produced under conditions
>> of free competition and a large measure of laissez-faire"
>> (1936, xxvi).
>
>
>
> I do not think it is possible to accurately communicate
> what Keynes was saying here by cutting off the quote
> in this way.  Out of curiosity, how do you interpret
> what he is saying?
>
Frankly, I don't understand what Isaac fails to understand about what I 
wrote.  I take Keynes at his word, and I accept the views of his 
contemporaries that Keynes was capable of clear expressions.  As Roy 
Harrod (1936), for example, wrote of him, Keynes was someone "capable of 
matchless lucidity."

In any case, I elaborated the quote with my comment that members of the 
Mont Pelerin Society understood Keynes's vision well enough to have 
argued against it.  Perhaps, I should have included references to 
Hayek's /The Road to Serfdom/ and the Friedmans' /Capitalism and 
Freedom/ and /Free To Choose/ as pointing to the outcome of pursuing 
Keynes's program and arguing the capitalism or free enterprise 
alternative.  Maybe, if Isaac thought carefully about Keynes's program 
of socializing investments and pursuing the euthenasia of the rentier 
class (those who depend substantially on interest, dividend, and rental 
and income), he might appreciate why Keynes himself would say that his 
theory was more suitable for application in a totalitarian state.

May I also suggest that, if Isaac has not already read the works of 
Hayek and the Friedmans I cite above, he try to do so.  J.S. Mill has 
this good advice: If you know only your side of the story, you don't 
know the whole story!

James Ahiakpor

-- 
James C.W. Ahiakpor, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Economics
California State University, East Bay
Hayward, CA 94542

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