Quotation of the Day…
by Don Boudreaux
on April 26, 2017
… is from pages 82-83 of Wilfred Beckerman’s great and ahead-of-its-time 1974 book, Two Cheers for the Affluent Society (footnote deleted; link added):
As Anthony Crosland [like Hayek] has pointed out, it is impossible to draw a sharp dividing line between those of our needs that are innate and natural and those that have been artificially developed as a result of many factors, including our whole social environment. Furthermore, even if it were possible to draw a dividing line between artificial and natural needs, what’s so moral about natural needs and so immoral, or undesirable, about artificial needs? Would some people’s artificially induced “need” to listen to music or to acquire knowledge be less desirable a component of welfare than some other people’s instinctive, natural and primitive instinct to rape women?
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