All Intensive Purposes

From a 1998 letter from John Rawls to Philippe van Parijs:

One question the Europeans should ask themselves, if I may hazard a suggestion, is how far–reaching they want their union to be. It seems to me that much would be lost if the European union became a federal union like the United States. Here there is a common language of political discourse and a ready willingness to move from one state to another. Isn’t there a conflict between a large free and open market comprising all of Europe and the individual nation-states, each with its separate political and social institutions, historical memories, and forms and traditions of social policy. Surely these are great value to the citizens of these countries and give meaning to their life. The large open market including all of Europe is aim of the large banks and the capitalist business class whose main goal is simply larger profit. The idea of economic growth, onwards and upwards, with no specific end in sight, fits this class perfectly. If they speak about distribution, it is [al]most always in terms of trickle down. The long–term result of this — which we already have in the United States — is a civil society awash in a meaningless consumerism of some kind. I can’t believe that that is what you want.

So you see that I am not happy about globalization as the banks and business class are pushing it. I accept Mill’s idea of the stationary state as described by him in Bk. IV, Ch. 6 of his Principles of Political Economy (1848). . . . I am under no illusion that its time will ever come – certainly not soon – but it is possible, and hence it has a place in what I call the idea of realistic utopia.

This is from the end of the second of three letters available here. Thanks to Chris Bertram for the tip.

As it would happen, I was just reading today's Financial Times whilst I ate my lunch, and it occurred to me that the newspaper is written for a reader who spends long hours thinking about how his or her company can better earn money and devotes whatever time is left on his or her evenings and weekends to investing his or her personal capital and in the act of consumption. The Financial Times does not seem to speak to citizens as such.

eta: Tyler Cowen and Brad DeLong weigh in.

eata: The weekend Financial Times included a fashion magazine subtitled, "how to spend it."