Political Quotes

Woodrow Wilson: “John Stuart Mill and Ricardo made a sort of logic of political economy; in order to simplify their processes, they…”

On the record
John Stuart Mill and Ricardo made a sort of logic of political economy; in order to simplify their processes, they deliberately stripped man of all motives save self-interest alone, and the result was evidently ‘doctrinaire’--was not a picture of life, but a theorem of trade.
Said by
Woodrow Wilson
Democratic · New Jersey

Editor's note · Context

Wilson critiques the reductionist approach of early economists who oversimplified human motives to self-interest.

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