Keynes Never Said That

And it's not a great quote anyway

Just because it’s in a meme, does not mean it is true. I have written on false quotes before - see this article:

I did not include the fake quote attributed to Keynes in that article and since it has been circulating again, it is worth looking at.

First off, it is clear Keynes never said it. Here are two websites that have thoroughly investigated that.

Quote Investigator

Steve Cotler

It appears that the original quote is from a friend of Keynes, E. Austin G. Robinson, and later modified and attributed to Keynes for better name recognition. The original quote reads:

The great merit of the capitalist system, it has been said, is that it succeeds in using the nastiest motives of nasty people for the ultimate benefit of society.

It has been modified to:

Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

And

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.

Keynes sentiments on capitalism were more about saving it, than dismantling it:

For my part I think that capitalism, wisely managed, can probably be made more efficient for attaining economic ends than any alternative system yet in sight, but that in itself it is in many ways extremely objectionable. - Keynes, 1926, The End of Laissez-faire

Keynes was a capitalist, not a Marxist. Any Marxist knows that capitalism cannot be “wisely managed.” There is no reforming the system, it must be smashed and replaced with socialism/communism.

Back to the original quote(s) - even it is not a good criticism of capitalism. It deflects blame away from the system to the individual. Capitalism is a problem because of its inherent nature, not because of nasty individuals. It does have a tendency to create those individuals because of the material conditions necessary to maintain the system, but it is not correct to blame capitalism on nasty individuals or “human nature.” It is true that the profit motive can be considered “nasty” or “wicked” because it takes the surplus value created by the labor power of the working class and gives it to the ruling class, something that is inherently exploitative. That is the fundamental problem with capitalism, not nasty individuals.

If we remove the nasty individuals, others will simply take their place (a Trump is replaced by a Biden who will then be replaced by a Trump again). Capitalism has to be abolished at the root - the system of private ownership of the means of production. Only that can solve the inherent contradictions of the system.

The distinguishing feature of Communism is not the abolition of property generally, but the abolition of bourgeois property. But modern bourgeois private property is the final and most complete expression of the system of producing and appropriating products, that is based on class antagonisms, on the exploitation of the many by the few.

In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property. - Marx and Engels, Communist Manifesto

Capitalism is based on private property, not nasty men with nasty motives. It is this that must be abolished for a better society.