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Published in:
2007 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Economists Justifying the Plot
Author : Michael Perelman
Published in: The Confiscation of American Prosperity
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan US
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Late in the eighteenth century, the conservative legal philosopher and economic ideologue, Jeremy Bentham, railed against the rhetoric of the French Revolution, denouncing it as “rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts” (Bentham 1962, 501). While I don’t subscribe to Bentham’s politics, his expression exquisitely expresses the way the right wing won control of the economy, spouting nonsense while being lifted up on the powerful stilts of money and influence. Of course, no account of this transformation can neglect to mention how the Democrats’ timidity contributed to the success of the right wing.