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Societies for the History of Economics

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Societies for the History of Economics <[log in to unmask]>
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Sumitra Shah <[log in to unmask]>
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Tue, 17 Feb 2009 21:09:43 -0500
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I would like to submit the following quotation for Keynes from "The 
End of Laissez-Faire". Even in this short version, it aptly conveys 
Keynes's philosophy. And I haven't come across a more trenchant 
expression of the public-private tension in capitalist economies.

"The world is *not* so governed from above that private and social 
interest always coincide. It is *not* so managed here below that in 
practice they coincide. It is *not* a correct deduction from the 
principles of economics that enlightened self-interest always 
operates in the public interest. Nor is it true that self-interest 
generally *is* enlightened; more often individuals acting separately 
to promote their own ends are too ignorant or too weak to attain even 
these. Experience does *not* show that individuals, when they make up 
a social unit, are always less clear-sighted than when they act separately. "

[Asterisks are used, as in *text*, to denote emphases in the 
original, but some email clients may bold these words. They were 
italicized in the original. HB]

Thanks.

Sumitra Shah

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