The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is past the ocean is flat again.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Economists should focus on immediate problems rather than long-term predictions since life is short.
- In plain terms
- Focusing on the long term is useless because people die before it arrives.
- What can you take from it?
- Prioritize immediate economic issues over distant forecasts.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do we balance short vs long term?
- Is theory useless without immediate fixes?
Another view
Long term planning is still necessary for sustainability.
More from John Maynard Keynes
Thus those reformers, who look for a remedy by creating artificial carrying-costs for money through the device of requiring legal-tender currency to be periodi…
Permalink to quote #2 In truth, the gold standard is already a barbarous relic.
Permalink to quote #4 I work for a Government I despise for ends I think criminal.
Permalink to quote #1
Related quotes
'I can't imagine anyone here wanting to spend another $30 billion to be there for another 12 years.'
Paul WolfowitzPaul Wolfowitz quote #4 Ford's economics are the worst thing that's happened to this country since pantyhose ruined finger-fucking.
Lyndon JohnsonLyndon Johnson quote #9 $100 placed at 7 percent interest compounded quarterly for 200 years will increase to more than $100,000,000 - by which time it will be worth nothing.
Robert A. HeinleinRobert A. Heinlein quote #41