Aberration Quote by John Kenneth Galbraith
“It had been held that the economic system, any capitalist system, found its equilibrium at full employment. Left to itself, it was thus that it came to rest. Idle men and idle plant were an aberration, a wholly temporary failing. Keynes showed that the modern economy could as well find its equilibrium with continuing, serious unemployment. Its perfectly normal tendency was to what economists have since come to call an underemployment equilibrium.”
About This Quote
Source Book: The Affluent Society, 1958
Capitalist economies naturally settle at a state of chronic underemployment, not full employment.
In simple terms: Markets often tolerate persistent joblessness.
Key Takeaway
Address structural unemployment.
Themes
economics
employment
capitalism
policy
Mood
analytical
critical
Type
economic
policy
When to use this quote
- government planning
- business strategy
- education funding
Key Concepts
macroeconomics
labor theory
social welfare
Questions to Reflect On
- What reforms can reduce underemployment?
- How does technology affect job stability?
A Different Perspective
Policy fixes may ignore deeper systemic issues.
![“[Dr. Constain James] refuted so well the aberrations of Darwinism… [A system] which is repugnant at once to history, to the tradition of all people, to exact science, to observed facts, and even to reason itself, would seem to need no refutation. But the corruption of this age, the machinations of…” quote by Pope Pius IX](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/927/pope-pius-ix-26903_aberration_dr-constain-james-refuted-so-well-the-ab_292056.jpg)
