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