Sunday, October 23, 2011

Quote of the week

"It needs to be said that the era of capitalist accumulation, to adopt their lingo, has been the most prosperous time in the history of humankind. In the 800 years before 1820, income per head across the world was static and so was life expectancy. Life wasn't much more than a matter of choosing which noxious disease to die from. In the 200 years of industrial capitalism, income per head has risen by 800 per cent. Life expectancy has tripled and backbreaking work has declined, especially for children, who now do something unheard of in both the medieval era and Jerusalem, namely go to school.

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"The thing to remember about the new Jerusalem is that we will never get there."

— Philip Collins, The Times of London

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