THIS
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A dog starv’d at his Masters Gate Predicts the ruin of the State William Blake, “Auguries of Innocence” I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. Stevie Smith, “Not Waving but Drowning” And in that Heaven of all their wish, There shall be no more land, say fish. Rupert Brooke, “Heaven”
From Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations :
“The progress of the enormous debts which at present oppress, and will in the long-run probably ruin, all the great nations of Europe, has been pretty uniform... “When national debts have once been accumulated to a certain degree, there is scarce, I believe, a single instance of their having been fairly and completely paid.” Smith then elaborates on the policy nations pursue when they find themselves unable to pay their national debt. Usually this is what Smith calls “a pretend payment” made by the “juggling trick” of debasing the currency. “When it becomes necessary for a state to declare itself bankrupt... a fair, open, and avowed bankruptcy is always the measure which is least dishonourable to the debtor, and least hurtful to the creditor. The honour of a state is surely very poorly provided for, when, in order to cover the disgrace of a real bankruptcy, it has recourse to a juggling trick of this kind... “It occasions a general and most pernicious subversion of the fortunes of private people; enriching in most cases the idle and profuse debtor at the expense of the industrious and frugal creditor...” Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book V, “Of the Revenue of the Sovereign or Commonwealth,” Chapter 3, “Of publick Debts”
“If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.” 16th century Scottish proverb
BONUS QUOTES FOR EX-HIPPIES LIKE P.J.
Maybe I’ll be there to shake your hand Maybe I’ll be there to share the land That they’ll be giving away When we all live together The Guess Who, “Share the Land,” 1970 Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people sharing all the world John Lennon, “Imagine,” 1971 Was a high wall there that tried to stop me A sign was painted said: Private Property But on the back side it didn’t say nothing – That side was made for you and me. Woody Guthrie, “This Land Is Your Land,” 1940
78 | November 2017
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