"We must make our choice. We may have democracy, Or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of the few but we can't have both."
- Louis Brandeis quoted by Forrest Johnson in the Reader Weekly, 2012-12-06
For the quote in context see http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Brandeis.
Showing posts with label Forrest Johnson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Forrest Johnson. Show all posts
Saturday, December 08, 2012
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Quote of the day: Our food, from lab or garden?
"Our foods are grown more in laboratories then cooked in kitchens." Unknown, quoted by Forrest Johnson, "Industrial foods and farming methods and your brain", Reader Weekly, 2012-05-17.
My wife and I like to think we eat mostly natural foods, but we do eat lots of stuff that is not right out of the ground or off the hoof. But a lot of it is processed - wine, oil, cheese, pretzels, chocolate. At least what we buy has been processed in centuries-old traditional methods; you might say it was "cooked" in somebody's kitchen.
My wife and I like to think we eat mostly natural foods, but we do eat lots of stuff that is not right out of the ground or off the hoof. But a lot of it is processed - wine, oil, cheese, pretzels, chocolate. At least what we buy has been processed in centuries-old traditional methods; you might say it was "cooked" in somebody's kitchen.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Adam Smith on Labor and Profits (Letter to Reader Weekly)
The Reader Weekly of Duluth published the following letter from me. I'm sorry that I didn't save Johnson and Drabik's articles.
Forrest Johnson and Harry Drabik both wrote interesting columns about the imbalance of power between management and labor in the Reader (Dec. 8). Interestingly, and to the dismay of many so-called "free traders", Adam Smith, writer of "An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations", backs up Johnson and Drabik.
Smith opens with "The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniencies [sic] of life which it annually consumes, and which consist always either in the immediate produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations."
And much later in his book Smith writes, "It is the stock [materials, equipment, and workplaces] that is employed for the sake of profit, which puts into motion the greater part of the useful labour of every society. The plans and projects of the employers of stock regulate and direct all the most important operation of labour, and profit is the end proposed by all those plans and projects. But the rate of profit does not, like rent and wages, rise with the prosperity, and fall with the declension of the society. On the contrary, it is naturally low in rich, and high in poor countries, and it is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to ruin."
In this same paragraph, Smith writes that the interests of those running or investing in business are often not the same as those of society.
Smith was not some god delivering the truth from on high; he was only a shrewd observer of how things work and how they affect various interests. The next time somebody claims support of "free markets", ask him or her how much of "Wealth of Nations" they have read. As for me, I'm only about a quarter of the way through and might finish it by next summer.
You can watch for "Wealth on Nation" nuggets from time to time on my blog at http://magree.blogspot.com.
Forrest Johnson and Harry Drabik both wrote interesting columns about the imbalance of power between management and labor in the Reader (Dec. 8). Interestingly, and to the dismay of many so-called "free traders", Adam Smith, writer of "An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations", backs up Johnson and Drabik.
Smith opens with "The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniencies [sic] of life which it annually consumes, and which consist always either in the immediate produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations."
And much later in his book Smith writes, "It is the stock [materials, equipment, and workplaces] that is employed for the sake of profit, which puts into motion the greater part of the useful labour of every society. The plans and projects of the employers of stock regulate and direct all the most important operation of labour, and profit is the end proposed by all those plans and projects. But the rate of profit does not, like rent and wages, rise with the prosperity, and fall with the declension of the society. On the contrary, it is naturally low in rich, and high in poor countries, and it is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to ruin."
In this same paragraph, Smith writes that the interests of those running or investing in business are often not the same as those of society.
Smith was not some god delivering the truth from on high; he was only a shrewd observer of how things work and how they affect various interests. The next time somebody claims support of "free markets", ask him or her how much of "Wealth of Nations" they have read. As for me, I'm only about a quarter of the way through and might finish it by next summer.
You can watch for "Wealth on Nation" nuggets from time to time on my blog at http://magree.blogspot.com.
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