From Monday’s Financial Times letters page.
Dentists have last laugh over sneering Keynes
Sir, Your editorial “A Nobel award for work of true economic value” (October 15) cites the witty and memorable line of J M Keynes about wishing that economists could be “humble, competent people, on a level with dentists”, which concludes his provocative 1930 essay on the economic future. You fail to convey, however, the irony and condescension of the original text of the arrogant, intellectual elitist Keynes, who, while superlatively competent, was assuredly not humble. With the passage of 84 years, the irony has changed directions, for modern dentistry is based on real science, and has made huge advances in scientific knowledge, applied technology and practice, to the great benefit of mankind. It is obviously far ahead of economics in these respects, and it is indeed unlikely that economics will ever be able to rise to the level of dentistry.
Alex J Pollock
Resident Fellow,
American Enterprise Institute,
Washington, DC, US
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