Keynes wanted state intervention to preserve, not destroy, capitalism’s profit motive

Evidence

Keynes articulated an understanding of capitalism as a mode of social or ga ni za tion that demonstrated both irreplaceable merits and undeniable fl aws. “For my part,” he told his audience, “I think that Capitalism, wisely managed, can probably be made more effi cient for attaining economic ends than any alternative system yet in sight, but that in itself it is in many ways extremely objectionable.” He envisioned a public sector that would engage in limited but forceful interventions to ameliorate the problems that were engendered when individuals were left to act alone. “The important thing for Government is not to do things which individuals are doing already, and to do them a little better or a little worse,” he explained, “but to do those things which at present are not done at all.” Such interventions would help mitigate the failures of the market without doing violence to its essential underpinnings. His proposed modifi cations, he asserted, were in no way “seriously incompatible with what seems to me to be the essential characteristic of Capitalism, namely the dependence upon an intense appeal to the moneymaking and moneyloving instincts of individuals as the main motive force of the economic machine.” — Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, 16

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sharpens what ‘Keynesian’ economic philosophy actually meant as a baseline against which Mont Pèlerin defined itself.
• XREF: Provides the Keynesian foil that the Austrian/MPS response was organized against — relevant to the reader’s whole Mont Pèlerin project. — connects to: Keynes’s state intervention served capitalist reproduction, not political emancipation. — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order: How Economists…, 1610; State intervention made capitalist exploitation political and thereby threatened capitalism itself — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 173; Keynes wrote the General Theory to save capitalism from fascism and socialism — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 2048 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Keynes’s state intervention served capitalist reproduction, not political emancipation. #corroborates (0.92) — Clara E. Mattei, The Capital Order, 1610
• Neoliberalism subordinates the state to capital rather than freeing markets #expands (0.78) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1720
• State intervention made capitalist exploitation political and thereby threatened capitalism itself #qualifies (0.75) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 173
• Keynes wrote the General Theory to save capitalism from fascism and socialism #qualifies (0.72) — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 2048