Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Dirk Ehnts — John Maynard Keynes: “I could create, I could afford” (Public Service Employment)

Here is a quote from John Maynard Keynes, writing in 1933:

If I had the power today I should surely set out to endow our capital cities with all the appurtenances of art and civilisation on the highest standards of which the citizens of each were individually capable, convinced that what I could create, I could afford – and believing that money thus spent would not only be better than any dole, but would make unnecessary any dole. For with what we have spent on the dole in England since the War we could have made our cities the greatest works of man in the world.
econoblog 101
John Maynard Keynes: “I could create, I could afford” (Public Service Employment)
Dirk Ehnts | Lecturer at Bard College Berlin

The quote is from National self-sufficiency (Yale Review, 1933).  See the whole of Section IV. It's brilliant.

2 comments:

lastgreek said...


Kirsten Gillibrand
‏Verified account @SenGillibrand

If Republicans could give $1.5 trillion in tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest among us, why can’t we invest a similar amount in a guaranteed jobs plan for regular Americans who are unemployed and willing to work to better their local community?

https://twitter.com/SenGillibrand/status/986268532244733952

Matt Franko said...

"For with what we have spent on the dole in England since the War we could have made our cities the greatest works of man in the world."

sounds like Trump... very materialist...

What if the people on the dole are not qualified to work in material systems? Hire the clarinet players to do material work anyway?