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  • The cash register did more for human morality than the Congregational Church. It was a really powerful phenomenon to make an economic system work better, just as, in reverse, a system that can be easily defrauded ruins a civilization. A system that's very hard to defraud, like a cash register, helped the economic performance of a civilization by reducing vice, but very few people within economics talk about it in those terms.

    "Academic Economics: Strengths and Faults After Considering Interdisciplinary Needs". Charlie Munger's Herb Kay Undergraduate Lecture at the Economics Department of University of California in Santa Barbara, October 3, 2003.