It is often said that mankind needs a faith if the world is to be improved. In fact, unless the faith is vigilantly and regularly checked by a sense of man's fallibility, it is likely to make the world worse. From Torquemada to Robespierre and Hitler the men who have made mankind suffer the most have been inspired to do so have been inspired to do so by a strong faith; so strong that it led them to think their crimes were acts of virtue necessary to help them achieve their aim, which was to build some sort of an ideal kingdom on earth.
That comes to about one hundred million people in India alone from 1947 to 1980. But we don__ call that a crime of democratic capitalism. If we were to carry out that calculation throughout the world_ I wont even talk about it. But Sen is correct; they__e not intended, just like the Chinese famine wasn__ intended. But they are ideological and institutional crimes, and capitalist democracy and its advocates are responsible for them, in whatever sense supporters of so-called Communism are responsible for the Chinese famine. We don__ have the entire responsibility, but certainly a large part of it
Power and Terror: Post-9/11 Talks and Interviews
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That comes to about one hundred million people in India alone from 1947 to 1980. But we don__ call that a crime of democratic capitalism. If we were to carry out that calculation throughout the world_ I wont even talk about it. But Sen is correct; they__e not intended, just like the Chinese famine wasn__ intended. But they are ideological and institutional crimes, and capitalist democracy and its advocates are responsible for them, in whatever sense supporters of so-called Communism are responsible for the Chinese famine. We don__ have the entire responsibility, but certainly a large part of it
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We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. We contend that for a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. The whole history of the world is summed up in the fact that, when nations are strong, they are not always just, and when they wish to be just, they are no longer strong.
Conflict is not unavoidable. However, it is nonsensical to consider the institution of a state as a solution to the problem of possible conflict, because it is precisely the institution of a state which first makes conflict unavoidable and permanent.
Price controls almost invariably produce black markets, where prices are not only higher than the legally permitted prices, but also higher than they would be in a free market, since the legal risks must also be compensated. While small-scale black markets may function in secrecy, large-scale black markets usually require bribes to officials to look the other way.
People are not embracing collectivism because they have accepted bad economics. They are accepting bad economics because they have embraced collectivism.
What ranks above all else for economic and political reconstruction is a radical change of ideologies. Economic prosperity is not so much a material problem; it is, first of all, an intellectual, spiritual, and moral problem.