Posts: 1249
From:
Registered: Mar 2011

posted June 15, 2012 06:05 AM            

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i wasn't sure what to call this thread, but just this morning i remembered that in my Junior year my Macroeconomics book (by the excellent Gregory Mankew) had a quotation by John Stuart Mill.. i've been looking for it for the past hour and i finally found it..

i remember reading this as an impressionable 19 year old who was in love with her major (Economics). tell me what u make of it and i will tell you what i think:

"The same persons who cry down Logic will generally warn you against Political Economy. It is unfeeling, they will tell you. It recognises unpleasant facts. For my part, the most unfeeling thing I know is the law of gravitation: it breaks the neck of the best and most amiable person without scruple, if he forgets for a single moment to give heed to it. The winds and waves too are very unfeeling. Would you advise those who go to sea to deny the winds and waves—or to make use of them, and find the means of guarding against their dangers? My advice to you is to study the great writers on Political Economy, and hold firmly by whatever in them you find true; and depend on it that if you are not selfish and hard-hearted already, Political Economy will not make you so. "

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Posts: 1249
From:
Registered: Mar 2011

posted June 15, 2012 06:14 AM            

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note how he compares the laws of political economics to that of gravity. gravity, he says, is the most "unfeeling" law since it breaks our necks if we do not heed to it, similarly he compares it to the winds and waves that steer the sailors in the sea..

my fovorite part would be "to hold firmly whatever in them you find true, and that if you are not selfish and hard-hearted already, Political Economy will not make you so. "

my passion for economics, where has it gone

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Posts: 129
From: India
Registered: Oct 2011

posted June 15, 2012 06:38 AM            

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Helllooooo!!! May be it has flown beyond the parameters of all Logic!

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