Not only subjective poverty is never overcome by growth, but absolute poverty is increased by it. ... Absolute misery grows while wealth increases.
Joan RobinsonThere is no such thing as a normal period of history. Normality is a fiction of economic textbooks.
Joan RobinsonWhere is the pricing system that offers the consumer a fair choice between air to breathe and motor cars to drive about in?
Joan RobinsonOne of the main effects (I will not say purposes) of orthodox traditional economics was ... a plan for explaining to the privileged class that their position was morally right and was necessary for the welfare of society.
Joan RobinsonCapitalism with near-full employment was an impressive spectacle. But a growth in wealth is not at all the same thing as reducing poverty. A universal paean was raised in praise of growth. Growth was going to solve all problems. No need to bother about poverty. Growth will lift up the bottom and poverty will disappear without any need to pay attention to it. The economists, who should have known better, fell in with the same cry.
Joan Robinson