John Kenneth Galbraith quotes - page 8

A constant in the history of money is that every remedy is reliably a source of new abuse. (John Kenneth Galbraith)
Authorship of any sort is a fantastic indulgence of the ego. It is well no doubt, to reflect on how much one owes to others. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Despite a flattering supposition to the contrary, people come readily to terms with power. There is little reason to think that the power of the great bankers, while they were assumed to have it, was much resented. But as the ghosts of numerous tyrants, from Julius Caesar to Benito Mussolini will testify, people are very hard on those who, having had power, lose it or are destroyed. Then anger at past arrogance is joined with contempt for the present weakness. The victim or his corpse is made to suffer all available indignities. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
It was in World War I that the age-old certainties were lost. Until then aristocrats and capitalists felt secure in their position, and even socialists felt certain in their faith. It was never to be so again. The Age of Uncertainty began. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Going back to the most ancient times, national well-being, the national prestige depended on territory. The more territory a country had, the more income revenue there was, the more people there were to be mobilized for arms strength. So we had an enormous sense of territorial conflict and territorial integrity, and that was unquestionably a part of the cause of war, coupled with the fact that there was a disposition in that direction by the landed class, a disposition to think of territorial acquisition and territorial defense and to think of the peasantry as a superior form of livestock which could be used for arms purposes. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
In accordance with an old but not outworn tradition, it might now be wise for all to conclude that crime, or even misbehavior, is the act of an individual, not the predisposition of a class. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
He enlarged perceptibly the scope for debate, liberalized appreciably the intellectual and cultural life of the country and proclaimed the obvious truth that, after an atomic exchange, little would distinguish the Communist ashes from the capitalist ashes. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
However, Hoover had converted the simple business ritual of reassurance into a major instrument of public policy. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
The decisive weakness in neoclassical and neo-Keynesian economics is not the error in the assumptions by which it elides the problem of power. The capacity for erroneous belief is very great, especially where it coincides with convenience. Rather, in eliding power - in making economics a nonpolitical subject - neoclassical theory destroys its relation to the real world. In that world, power is decisive in what happens. And the problems of that world are increasing both in number and in the depth of their social affliction. In consequence, neoclassical and neo-Keynesian economics is relegating its players to the social sidelines where they either call no plays or use the wrong ones. To change the metaphor, they manipulate levers to which no machinery is attached. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
Our political life favors the extremes of speech; the man who is gifted in the arts of abuse is bound to be a notable, if not always a great figure. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right. The sensitivity of the poor to injustice is a trivial thing compared with that of the rich. (John Kenneth Galbraith)
The huge capacity to purchase submission that goes with any large sum of money, well, this we have. This is a power of which we should all be aware. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
The fact was that American enterprise in the twenties had opened its hospitable arms to an exceptional number of promoters, grafters, swindlers, impostors, and frauds. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
And after they have started the action will always look, as it did to the frightened men in the Federal Reserve Board in February 1929, like a decision in favor of immediate as against ultimate death. As we have seen, the immediate death not only has the disadvantage of being immediate but of identifying the executioner. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
The market had reasserted itself as an impersonal force beyond the power of any person to control, and, while this is the way markets are supposed to be, it was horrible. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
But there is still a considerable difference between a failure to do enough that is right and a determination to do much that is wrong. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
One of the uses of depression is the exposure of what auditors fail to find. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
In these matters, as often in our culture, it is far, far better to be wrong in a respectable way than to be right for the wrong reasons. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
The inevitable counterpart of specialization is organization. This is what brings the work of specialists to a coherent result. If there are many specialists, this coordination will be a major task. So complex, indeed, will be the job of organizing specialists that there will be specialists on organization and organizations of specialists on organization. More perhaps than machinery, massive and complex business organizations are the tangible manifestation of advanced technology. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
No one knew, but it cannot be stressed too frequently, that for effective incantation knowledge is neither necessary nor assumed. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
The values of a society totally preoccupied with making money are not altogether reassuring. (John Kenneth Galbraith)
Once the visitor was told rather repetitively that this city was the melting pot; never before in history had so many people of such varied languages, customs, colors and culinary habits lived so amicably together. Although New York remains peaceful by most standards, this self-congratulation is now less often heard, since it was discovered some years ago that racial harmony depended unduly on the willingness of the blacks (and latterly the Puerto Ricans) to do for the other races the meanest jobs at the lowest wages and then to return to live by themselves in the worst slums. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
The study of money, above all other fields in economics, is the one in which complexity is used to disguise truth or to evade truth, not to reveal it. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
If a man be subject to the authority of another, he can at least ask that it not be an occasion for glee. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith
More generally, the individual who gets added income as a result of a general inflationary movement atributes it not to larger economic causes but to his own virtue and diligence. View quote
John Kenneth Galbraith