Thursday, June 9, 2011

"The most obvious facts are the most easily forgotten..."


"If, however, economic ambitions are good servants, they are bad masters. The most obvious facts are the most easily forgotten.

Both the existing economic order and too many of the projects advanced for reconstructing it breakdown through their neglect of the truism that, since even quite common men have souls, no increase in material wealth will compensate them for arrangements which insult their self-respect and impair their freedom.

A reasonable estimate of economic organization must allow for the fact that, unless industry is to be paralyzed by recurrent revolts on the part of outraged human nature, it must satisfy criteria which are not purely economic."

- R.H. Tawney
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism 

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