:-)
>
>
>On Mon, Jan 21, 2002 at 08:38:47PM -0800, Brad DeLong wrote:
>> >We had a Mormon faculty member who used to describe the original Mormon
>> >economy as something that sounded like a crude socialist economy.
>> >
>> >On Mon, Jan 21, 2002 at 10:52:47PM -0500, Nathan Newman wrote:
>> >> Interesting quote on Mormon doctrine from this week's New
>>Yorker article on
>> >> them.
>> >>
>> >> The managing director of L.D.S. Welfare Services, the church
>>charitable arm,
>> >> discusses the churches requirement that people do various work
>>around the
>> >> church in exchange for charitable support:
>> >>
>> >> "You can receive according to your need, but you are expected to work
>> >> according to your ability."
>> >>
>> > > -- Nathan Newman
>> >>
>>
>> Yes. The parallels are spooky, up to and including the all-benevolent
>> all-wise leader who could do no wrong...
>
>--
>Michael Perelman
>Economics Department
>California State University
>Chico, CA 95929
>
>Tel. 530-898-5321
>E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu
-- "Burke ever held, and held rightly, that it can seldom be right toŠ sacrifice a present benefit for a doubtful advantage in the futureŠ. It is not wise to look too far ahead; our powers of prediction are slight, our command over results infinitesimal. It is therefore the happiness of our own contemporaries that is our main concern; we should be very chary of sacrificing large numbers of people for the sake of a contingent end, however advantageous that may appearŠ. We can never know enough to make the chance worth taking. There is this further consideration that is often in need of emphasis: it is not sufficient that the state of affairs which we seek to promote should be better than the state of affairs which preceded it; it must be sufficiently better to make up for the evils of the transitionŠ"
--John Maynard Keynes
____________________ J. Bradford DeLong Department of Economics U.C. Berkeley, #3880 Berkeley, CA 94720-3880 (510) 643-4027 delong at econ.berkeley.edu http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/