Our Knowledge Is A Receding Mirage In

We Conclude That The Concentration Of Wealth Is Natural And Inevitable, And Is Periodically Alleviated By Violent Or Peaceable Partial Redistribution. In This View All Economic History Is The Slow Heartbeat Of The Social Organism, A Vast Systole And Diastole Of Concentrating Wealth And Compulsive Redistribution.

An Emperor Knows How To Govern When Poets Are Free To Make Verses, People To Act Plays, Historians To Tell The Truth, Ministers To Give Advice, The Poor To Grumble At Taxes, Students To Learn Lessons Aloud, Workmen To Praise Their Skill And Seek Work, People To Speak Of Anything, And Old Men To Find Fault With Everything.

In Its Youth A People Produce Mythology And Poetry; In Its Decadence, Philosophy And Logic.

As Long As There Is Poverty There Will Be Gods.

The Experience Of The Past Lives Little Doubt That Every Economic System Must Sooner Or Later Rely Upon Some Form Of The Profit Motive To Stir Individuals And Groups To Productivity. Substitutes Like Slavery, Police Supervision, Or Ideological Enthusiasm Prove Too Unproductive, Too Expensive, Or Too Transient.