Two quotes J.M.Keynes  

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes

*       This is a nightmare, which will pass away with the morning. For the
resources of nature and men's devices are just as fertile and productive as
they were. The rate of our progress towards solving the material problems of
life is not less rapid. We are as capable as before of affording for
everyone a high standard of life ... and will soon learn to afford a
standard higher still. We were not previously deceived. But to-day we have
involved ourselves in a colossal muddle, having blundered in the control of
a delicate machine, the working of which we do not understand. The result is
that our possibilities of wealth may run to waste for a time - perhaps for a
long time. 

*       J.M. Keynes
*       Referring to economics and the Great Depression, "The Great Slump of
1930" (1930), in Essays in Persuasion

 

*       When the accumulation of wealth is no longer of high social
importance, there will be great changes in the code of morals. We shall be
able to rid ourselves of many of the pseudo-moral principles which have
hag-ridden us for two hundred years, by which we have exalted some of the
most distasteful of human qualities into the position of the highest
virtues. We shall be able to afford to dare to assess the money-motive at
its true value. The love of money as a possession - as distinguished from
the love of money as a means to the enjoyments and realities of life - will
be recognised for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity, one of those
semi-criminal, semi-pathological propensities which one hands over with a
shudder to the specialists in mental disease ... But beware! The time for
all this is not yet. For at least another hundred years we must pretend to
ourselves and to everyone that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is
useful and fair is not.  <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Avarice> Avarice and
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Usury> usury and precaution must be our gods
for a little longer still. For only they can lead us out of the tunnel of
economic necessity into daylight. 

*       "The Future", Essays in Persuasion (1931) Ch. 5, JMK, CW, IX, pp.329
- 331, Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren (1930); as quoted in
<http://www.geocities.com/monedem/keyn.html> "Keynes and the Ethics of
Capitalism" by Robert Skidelsy

 

 

 

From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Ed Weick
Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2011 5:35 PM
To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION
Subject: Re: [Futurework]
china-insolvency-wave-begins-nations-biggest-provincal-borrowers-defer-loan-
payments

 

When I think about it, what I fear most is the waves of pessimism sweeping
over the global landscape -- wave after wave of darkness blotting out any
prospect of ever seeing the sun.  It's as though, everything is dark and
gloomy and will stay that way forever.

 

What we forget is that we've been here before -- many times.  Empires have
arisen and empires have collapsed.  Great ideas were put into practice and
were then no longer great.  Religions arose out of our sense of beauty and
duty but then became repressive dogmas.  Science and medicine made huge
differences to public health in the 18th and 19th centuries but then led to
an exploding global population.  The innovative technology of the past
couple of centuries made things very much easier for the working man, but is
now taking away his job.

 

Throughout, however, we've survived and moved on to the next epochal change,
and that is what we may have to do again.  Right now, the European Union,
originally a beautiful idea, is under a great deal of stress and may not
survive.  The USSR, a brutal machine founded on the humane thinking of Marx,
is long gone.  China has moved from the same humane thoughts to a brutal but
vulnerable system of state capitalism.  America, once the hope of the world,
is deadlocked in its own ideological battles.  

 

But let's not worry, the dark clouds will pass -- maybe.  By the end of this
century, or perhaps even earlier, there will have been major shifts of power
and organization.  Things like the Arab Spring, the Occupy movement, and the
rise against the Putinization of Russia certainly suggest that the dark
clouds will move on and the sun will shine again.  But only for a time,
until the next wave of dark clouds roll in.

 

OK.  I'm an old guy, and the older you are right now, the more optimistic
you can feel.  Whatever happens next won't be my problem, it'll be the
problem of the guys who are jumping up and down shouting they're the 99
percent.  It's their inheritance and I'm glad to be able to pass it on to
them.

 

Ed

 

 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: "Ray Harrell" < <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]>

To: "'RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION'" <
<mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]>

Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2011 3:08 PM

Subject: Re:
[Futurework]china-insolvency-wave-begins-nations-biggest-provincal-borrowers
-defer-loan-payments

 

> "before the skull and bones takes over the world."  
> 
> 
> You missed that?
> 
> REH
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From:  <mailto:[email protected]>
[email protected]
> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of D and N
> Sent: Wednesday, December 28, 2011 1:15 PM
> To: RE-DESIGNING WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION, EDUCATION
> Subject: Re: [Futurework]
>
china-insolvency-wave-begins-nations-biggest-provincal-borrowers-defer-loan-
> payments
> 
> Yep. With all this richness around us; with all the wealth of artistry 
> going to waste, the world is somehow broke or is that only broken - 
> meaning we could fix it ... if the banks were shut down. I know - too 
> difficult. But a big change has to occur before the skull and bones 
> takes over the world.
> 
> D.
> 
> 
> 
> On 12/27/2011 7:47 PM, Ray Harrell wrote:
>> So now the whole world is broke.   Humm!
>>
>> REH
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From:  <mailto:[email protected]>
[email protected]
>> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of michael
> gurstein
>> Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2011 10:05 PM
>> To: Futurework
>> Subject: [Futurework]
>>
>
china-insolvency-wave-begins-nations-biggest-provincal-borrowers-defer-loan-
>> payments
>>
>>
>
<http://www.zerohedge.com/news/china-insolvency-wave-begins-nations-biggest-
p>
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/china-insolvency-wave-begins-nations-biggest-p
>> rovincal-borrowers-defer-loan-payments
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Futurework mailing list
>>  <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]
>>  <https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework>
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Futurework mailing list
>>  <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]
>>  <https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework>
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Futurework mailing list
>  <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]
>  <https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework>
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Futurework mailing list
>  <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]
>  <https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework>
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
>

_______________________________________________
Futurework mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework

Reply via email to