“The political problem of mankind is to combine three things: economic efficiency, social justice and individual liberty.”

—  John Maynard Keynes

Last update June 20, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The political problem of mankind is to combine three things: economic efficiency, social justice and individual liberty." by John Maynard Keynes?
John Maynard Keynes photo
John Maynard Keynes122
British economist 1883–1946

Related quotes

Clement Attlee photo

“At the one end of the scale are the Communist countries: at the other end the United States of America stands for individual liberty in the political sphere and for the maintenance of human rights. But its economy is based on capitalism, with all the problems which it presents, and with the characteristic extreme inequality of wealth in its citizens. … Great Britain, like the other countries of western Europe, is placed geographically and from the point of view of economic and political theory between these two great continental States. … Our task is to work out a system of a new and challenging kind, which combines individual freedom with a planned economy, democracy with social justice.”

Clement Attlee (1883–1967) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Broadcast (3 January 1948), quoted in The Times (5 January 1948), p. 4
Prime Minister

Alfredo Rocco photo

“Fascism does not look upon the doctrine of economic liberty as an absolute dogma. It does not refer economic problems to individual needs, to individual interest, to individual solutions. On the contrary, it considers the economic development, and especially the production of wealth, as an eminently social concern, wealth being for society an essential element of power and prosperity.”

Alfredo Rocco (1875–1935) Italian politician and jurist

Source: The Political Doctrine of Fascism (1925), p. 113

Calvin Coolidge photo

“It is gratifying to report that the progress of industry, the enormous increase in individual productivity through labor-saving devices, and the high rate of wages have all combined to furnish our people in general with such an abundance not only of the necessaries but of the conveniences of life that we are by a natural evolution solving our problems of economic and social justice.”

Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American politician, 30th president of the United States (in office from 1923 to 1929)

1920s, Second State of the Union Address (1924)

Alfred Marshall photo

“Political Economy or Economics is a study of mankind in the ordinary business of life; it examines that part of individual and social action which is most closely connected with the attainment and with the use of the material requisites of wellbeing.”

Alfred Marshall book Principles of Economics

Bk I, Ch. I, Introduction
Principles of Economics, (1890)

George Fitzhugh photo

“No association, no efficient combination of labor can be effected till men give up their liberty of action and subject themselves to a common despotic head or ruler. This is slavery, and towards this socialism is moving.”

George Fitzhugh (1806–1881) American activist

Source: Sociology For The South: Or The Failure Of A Free Society (1854), p. 61

Danny Kruger photo

“Where the Left imagine social justice to be the realization of certain abstract ideas — equality and emancipation — the Right see it as a system of naturally occurring and beneficial relationships. Social justice is the fulfilment of the individual's need for positive liberty through social membership.”

Danny Kruger (1974) British politician and Conservative MP

"Fraternity". p. 52
On Fraternity : Politics Beyond Liberty & Equality (2007)

Louis Brandeis photo

“What are the American ideals? They are the development of the individual for his own and the common good; the development of the individual through liberty, and the attainment of the common good through democracy and social justice.”

Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) American Supreme Court Justice

“True Americanism” (1915).
Extra-judicial writings

Arsène Wenger photo

“Politically, I am for efficiency. Economically first.”

Arsène Wenger (1949) French footballer and manager

Joint Interview with The Times and Daily Mail (2009)
Context: Politically, I am for efficiency. Economically first. Until the 1980s the world was divided into two, people were either communist or capitalist. The communist model does not work economically, we all realised that, but the capitalist model in the modern world also looks to be unsustainable. You cannot ignore individual interests, but I believe the world evolves slowly. The last 30 years have brought a minimum amount of money for everybody in the west, the next step, politically, would be a maximum amount of money earned by everybody.

Robert Kuttner photo

“The economic illusion is the belief that social justice is bad for economic growth.”

Robert Kuttner (1943) American journalist

Introduction, p. 1 (First text line.)
The Economic Illusion (1984)

“Economic, social, political, environmental and population development in Thailand have created a series of problems that must be addressed addressesed by education.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

The Reason and the objective of Education Reform

Related topics