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More like: they are no longer starving, and can now tend to the pain in their foot.

I've heard similar versions of this argument, usually something about modern poor people having it pretty good because they have microwave, while Carnegie didn't.

>I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine. [0]

We're now complaining about people studying painting, poetry, etc.

[0]https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L178005...



That Adams quote is nice, and has a similar historical flavour to some of Milton Friedman’s arguments.

That said, choosing a field of study only has the risk of bankrupting yourself.

The excesses of the 21st century, whether that’s blowing up the supply chains that got you out of stagflation, or injecting Maoist rhetoric into academia, will have a much larger and more destructive blowback.




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