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About this quote

What does it mean?
The primary value of economics is to create jobs for those who study it.
In plain terms
Economics is mostly useful for keeping economists employed.
What can you take from it?
Be skeptical of fields that primarily serve their own practitioners.

Where it applies

  • career choices
  • academic critique
  • policy review

Putting it to work

  • evaluate real-world impact
  • question value propositions

Questions to consider

  • What is the real value of this field?
  • Who does this serve?

Another view

Economics does drive genuine policy and understanding in some contexts.

More from John Kenneth Galbraith

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  2. Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everybody gets busy on the proof.

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  3. Let's begin with capitalism, a word that has gone largely out of fashion. The approved reference now is to the market system. This shift minimizes - indeed, de…

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