Here's an interesting quote for you:

"The single most sensible thing said in political philosophy in the twentieth century was Milton Friedman's aphorism that the quest of Marxist thought throughout the last century has been 'the search for a higher moral justification for selfishness.'"

Oh, wait a minute, maybe the quote was this:

"The single most sensible thing said in political philosophy in the twentieth century was JK Galbraith's aphorism that the quest of conservative thought throughout the ages has been 'the search for a higher moral justification for selfishness.'"

Oh, wait a minute. Maybe the quote was this:

"The single most sensible thing said in political philosophy in the twentieth century was F.A. Hayek's assertion that the quest of Left-Liberal thought throughout the last hundred years has been 'the search for a higher moral justification for selfishness.'"

Just guessing off the top of your head, which of these do you think is actually correct? Furthermore, which do you think has any more truth than the others?

If you're saying they're all shallow nonsense, I applaud your common sense.

But if you'd like to find out which is the real quote, you can go here to Brad De Long's page. I find myself wondering why an intelligent man like this is impressed with such shallow juvenalia. It's rather trollish, isn't it?

I've lived on welfare, and count welfare moms among my friends. Is there anything more selfish than living off your fellow beings, expecting them to provide for you? I really don't think so, which is why I worked so hard to get off of welfare.

Besides, does anyone believe that today's "liberals" are the liberals that Galbraith was writing about, or that today's "conservatives" are the same as they were in Galbraith's days? Isn't it time we outgrow this silly dialectic?

(Via the excellent Babylonian Musings.)