Economics
In the Western countries, one of the least informed and least intelligent controversies of our time has concerned the question whether we should have a "free" or a "planned" economy. This conception of an automatic direction of economic life towards an inherent goal, i.e. if a "non-planned planning", was the fundamental metaphysical value notion underlying that theory. This is the economic speculation which we group under the collective term "laissez-faire". To the contrary that the economic process should be intentionally directed, the tautological expression "economic planning" was then invented. This ideal of economic planning has commonly been related to Marx and Marxism. This is a factual mistake. I do not believe that the term "economic planning" or a "planned economy" exists in Marx' works. The poor really have grown poorer.
Newly generated wealth and the promise thereof have whetted the appetites of the rich and powerful, inspiring them not only to make better use of their own economic resources, but also to encroach on those of their less powerful and more impoverished countrymen. The consequence has been the conversion of "trickle-down" theory into "trickle up" economics. The supply side theory is nothing more than our effort to keep on living beyond our means. Supply side advocates maintain that the key to sustained economic growth is cutting taxes, which they say will induce people to work harder, hold on to more to invest more freely and is nothing more than our extreme extravagance.
Economics is the study of the management of material wealth. Aristotle - Of everything which we possess, there are two uses, one is the proper, and the other is the improper or secondary use of it. For example, a shoe is used for wear, and is used for exchange, both are uses of a shoe. He who gives a shoe in exchange for money or food to him who wants one, does indeed use the shoe as a shoe, but this is not its proper or primary purpose, for a shoe is not made to be an object of barter. The same may be said for all possessions, for the art of exchange extends to all of them.
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