Capitalism is “the astonishing belief that the nastiest motives of the nastiest men somehow or other work for the best results in the best of all possible worlds.”
• Recent variant: Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone." - Meaning and context.">
Attributed by Sir George Schuster, Christianity and human relations in industry (1951), p. 109
  • As quoted in Moving Forward: Programme for a Participatory Economy (2000) by Michael Albert, p. 128

Capitalism is “the astonishing belief that the nastiest motives of the nastiest men somehow or other work for the best results in the best of all possible worlds.”
• Recent variant: Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

— John Maynard Keynes

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Capitalism is “the astonishing belief that the nastiest motives of the nastiest men somehow or other work for the best results in the best of all possible worlds.”
• Recent variant: Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone." in the context of "Attributed by Sir George Schuster, Christianity and human relations in industry (1951), p. 109
  • As quoted in Moving Forward: Programme for a Participatory Economy (2000) by Michael Albert, p. 128" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "John Maynard Keynes" (Attributed) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
John Maynard Keynes

About John Maynard Keynes

John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes of Tilton (5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946) was a British economist whose ideas, known as Keynesian economics, had a major impact on modern economic and political theory and on many governments' fiscal policies.