Quotation of the Day…
by Don Boudreaux
on September 4, 2019
… is from page 251 of the 1975 HarperPerennial printing of the third (1950) edition of Joseph Schumpeter’s profound 1942 work, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy:
There is, first, no such thing as a uniquely determined common good that all people could agree on or be made to agree on by the force of rational argument. This is due not primarily to the fact that some people may want things other than the common good but to the much more fundamental fact that to different individuals and groups the common good is bound to mean different things.
DBx: Despite all the romantic and jejune rhapsodies sung to democracy, there is no such thing as “the will of the people.” The reason is that “the people” is neither a sentient creature nor an organization (such as a firm) designed to achieve particular ends.
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