Capitalism Quote by David Roth Singerman
““It would take expert navigators, like economists, to steer the world through the purgatory of capitalism and arrive at a future not just of leisure but also of morality. To ensure that human beings would be able to seize their opportunity for an ethical society, one devoted to good ends and rid of foul means, society would have to concern itself with both quality and quantity of population. As long as there was un- satisfied need, Keynes said in 1928, it would “remain reasonable to be economically purposive for others after it has ceased to be reasonable for oneself.” Here was the objective of Keynes’s idiosyncratic eugenics, one that connected the ethics of obligation to plans for social and economic management. Only when the condition of wantlessness “has become so general that the nature of one’s duty to one’s neighbour is changed” would progress truly have been made””
About This Quote
Source Essay: Economic philosophy, unknown source
Keynes’s view links ethical society to managing population quality and quantity, suggesting moral duty evolves with abundance.
In simple terms: Keynes ties ethics to population management and societal duty.
Consider ethical implications of economic policies.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- Policy making
- population planning
- ethical debates
- economic theory
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How should modern societies balance population growth with ethics?
- What safeguards prevent misuse of economic theories?
His eugenics ideas are controversial and historically problematic.