Quote About Economic Eschatologism*

Via Don Boudreaux:

I pose today …  the same question that Thomas Babington Macaulay posed in 1830 to the irrational pessimist Robert Southey:

On what principle is it, that when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us?

I think this is a worthwhile question for all economics students.

* Eschatologism is the belief that the study of the “end of days” of a particular religion is important for day to day decision-making in the here and now.