… is from page 125 of the 1975 HarperPerennial printing of the third (1950) edition of Joseph Schumpeter’s profound 1942 book, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy:
Not only the modern mechanized plant and the volume of the output that pours forth from it, not only modern technology and economic organization, but all features and achievements of modern civilization are, directly or indirectly, the products of the capitalist process. They must be included in any balance sheet of it and in any verdict about its deeds and misdeeds.
DBx: From the full-bellied and sturdily housed comfort, convenience, and safety provided by modern capitalism it’s too easy to notice that which stands out – namely, reality isn’t your (or anyone else’s) heaven – and then to blame capitalism for its failure to produce heaven on earth. Unfortunately, modern history is filled with examples of producing hell on earth as humans attempt to engineer impossible heavens.
