Quotation of the Day…

by Don Boudreaux on February 6, 2012

in Civil Society, Competition, Complexity & Emergence

… is from page 210 of James Q. Wilson’s excellent 1993 book The Moral Sense:

Commercial life requires transactions – buying, selling, lending, borrowing – that are made easier by trust and a reputation for trustworthiness.  To acquire that useful reputation, fair dealing is necessary, even with people of different clans.  Industry progresses with the division of labor, a process that is facilitated by (and in turn reinforces) the view that each person should be judged on merit alone; that is, on the worth of his or her contribution to the collective effort.

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