Joan Robinson Quotes

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• The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.

  Joan Robinson

  Learning, Answers, Deceit

  "Marx, Marshall and Keynes" (1955)

  131 Copy quote

• The only thing worse than being exploited by capitalism is not being exploited by capitalism.

  Joan Robinson

  Economics, Capitalism

  43 Copy quote

• Ideology is like breath: you never smell your own.

  Joan Robinson

  Smell, Ideology, Breaths

  30 Copy quote

• The point of studying economics is so as not to be fooled by economists.

  Joan Robinson

  Study, Economics, Economist

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• The first essential for economists ... is to ... combat, not foster, the ideology which pretends that values which can be measured in terms of money are the only ones that ought to count.

  Joan Robinson

  Essentials, Firsts, Economics

  Joan Robinson (2017). “Economic Philosophy”, p.95, Routledge

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• One of the main effects (I will not say purposes) of orthodox traditional economics was ... a plan for explaining to the privileged class that their position was morally right and was necessary for the welfare of society.

  Joan Robinson

  Class, Purpose, Welfare

  Essays in the Theory of Employment "An Economist's Sermon" (1937)

  28 Copy quote

• It's a terrible thing to be a worker exploited in the capitalist system. The only worse thing is to be a worker unable to find anyone to exploit you.

  Joan Robinson

  Growth, Economic, Terrible

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• There is no such thing as a normal period of history. Normality is a fiction of economic textbooks.

  Joan Robinson

  Textbooks, Fiction, Normal

  Joan Robinson (2014). “Contributions to Modern Economics”, p.3, Academic Press

  12 Copy quote

• It is the business of economists, not to tell us what to do, but show why what we are doing anyway is in accord with proper principles.

  Joan Robinson

  Business, Principles, Economist

  Joan Robinson (1962). “Economic philosophy”, p.21, Transaction Publishers

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• I do not regard the Keynesian revolution as a great intellectual triumph. On the contrary, it was a tragedy because it came so late. Hitler had already found out how to cure unemployment before Keynes had finished explaining why it occured.

  Joan Robinson

  Intellectual, Tragedy, Revolution

  American Economic Association, Joan Robinson (1972). “The Second Crisis of Economic Theory: And Other Selected Papers from the American Economic Meeting, December 27-29, 1971”

  17 Copy quote

• Not only subjective poverty is never overcome by growth, but absolute poverty is increased by it. ... Absolute misery grows while wealth increases.

  Joan Robinson

  Growth, Overcoming, Poverty

  American Economic Association, Joan Robinson (1972). “The Second Crisis of Economic Theory: And Other Selected Papers from the American Economic Meeting, December 27-29, 1971”

  6 Copy quote

• Economic theorists should not make such a production about taking a rabbit out of a hat after having put the rabbit into the hat in full view of the audience.

  Joan Robinson

  Views, Hats, Rabbits

  23 Copy quote

• It is a popular error that bureaucracy is less flexible than private enterprise. It may be so in detail, but when large scale adaptations have to be made, central control is far more flexible. It may take two months to get an answer to a letter from a government department, but it takes twenty years for an industry under private enterprise to readjust itself to a fall in demand.

  Joan Robinson

  Fall, Years, Two

  Joan Robinson (2014). “Contributions to Modern Economics”, p.27, Academic Press

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• science progresses by trial and error, and when it is forbidden to admit error there can be no progress.

  Joan Robinson

  Science, Errors, Progress

  Joan Robinson (1962). “Economic philosophy”, p.38, Transaction Publishers

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• Voltaire remarked that it is possible to kill a flock of sheep by witchcraft if you give them plenty of arsenic at the same time. The sheep, in this figure, may well stand for the complacent apologists of capitalism; Marx's penetrating insight and bitter hatred of oppression supply the arsenic, while the labour theory of value provides the incantations.

  Joan Robinson

  Sheep, Giving, Hatred

  Joan Robinson (1967). “Essay on Marxian Economics”, p.22, Springer

  56 Copy quote

• Marxism is the opium of the Marxists.

  Joan Robinson

  Economy, Marxist, Marxism

  On Re-Reading Marx title page (1953) See Karl Marx 2

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• But, as soon as speculators become an important influence in the market, their business is to speculate on each others behaviour.

  Joan Robinson

  Important, Behaviour, Influence

  Joan Robinson (2014). “Contributions to Modern Economics”, p.46, Academic Press

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• Capitalism with near-full employment was an impressive spectacle. But a growth in wealth is not at all the same thing as reducing poverty. A universal paean was raised in praise of growth. Growth was going to solve all problems. No need to bother about poverty. Growth will lift up the bottom and poverty will disappear without any need to pay attention to it. The economists, who should have known better, fell in with the same cry.

  Joan Robinson

  Should Have, Growth, Needs

  Joan Robinson (2014). “Contributions to Modern Economics”, p.9, Academic Press

  9 Copy quote

• Whatever you can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true.

  Joan Robinson

  Opposites, India

  "Contrary India" by Amartya Sen, www.economist.com. November 18, 2005.

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• Where is the pricing system that offers the consumer a fair choice between air to breathe and motor cars to drive about in?

  Joan Robinson

  Air, Car, Choices

  Joan Robinson (2014). “Contributions to Modern Economics”, p.10, Academic Press

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• A depression is a situation of self-fulfilling pessimism.

  Joan Robinson

  Self, Pessimism, Economics

  Joan Robinson (1973). “Economic heresies: some old-fashioned questions in economic theory”

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• Reality is never a golden age.

  Joan Robinson

  Reality, Age, Golden

  Joan Robinson (1973). “Economic heresies: some old-fashioned questions in economic theory”

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• The nature of technology depends very much upon what the public can be induced to put up with.

  Joan Robinson

  Technology, Depends

  Joan Robinson (1973). “Economic heresies: some old-fashioned questions in economic theory”

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• It seems that neither the Keynesian nor the Marxian prognosis of the future of capitalism is being fulfilled and we are left without any particular theory as to what will happen next.

  Joan Robinson

  Next, Theory, Prognosis

  Joan Robinson (2014). “Contributions to Modern Economics”, p.227, Academic Press

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• The very nature of economics is rooted in nationalism. ... It [was] developed ... in the hope of throwing light upon questions of policy. But policy means nothing unless there is an authority to carry it out, and authorities are national.

  Joan Robinson

  Mean, Light, Economics

  Joan Robinson (1962). “Economic philosophy”, p.124, Transaction Publishers

  18 Copy quote

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