Quotation of the Day…

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… is from page 73 of Deirdre McCloskey’s forthcoming book, Equality of Permission [original emphasis]:

An equality of outcome, the brain surgeon paid at the finish line, or the tenth mile, the same as the street sweeper, certainly comports with an equality of souls…. But unfortunately in large groups the ignoring of a person’s marginal work product, and making payments according to the noble belief in the equality of human worth – in which all us monotheists and modern liberals do, I affirm yet again, fervently believe – does not work. Through gross misallocation in the short run, and the collapse of spurs to innovation in the long, such an enforced equality of outcome leads in a large group to a dismal equality of poverty, and then to tyranny. Such attempts fail every time at large scale, even when they are kindly and sincere and gentle.