Page:Confessions of an Economic Heretic.djvu/135

 What they fail to recognize is that they are turning themselves into the mercenary or volunteer protectors of a capitalism which has outlived the period of its utility, and of a profiteering system no longer serviceable even in the interests of maximum productivity. This blindness has subtle psychological implications. In America, Veblen and others have pointed out with irrefutable arguments the part played in the economics of the colleges by the selection of “safe” teachers and methods of study, warranted not to offend the well-to-do benefactors and trustees. In England this aspect of the issue has not the same prominence. The defence of capitalism, the repudiation of dangerous doctrines, is not a direct conscious motive in the mind of our economists. It proceeds, partly from a genuine belief in the rightness of the established system and of the “economics” which expand and justify intellectually this system, partly from a sincere rejection of the Socialist case, as expounded by its literature. But it is none the less closely associated with a strong class feeling for friends and associates whose interests lie in the preservation of the capitalist system. It is not possible to escape the power of early associations and the social standards of education, manners, and ways of living of those with whom we have been thrown. Equality of educational opportunities has not yet gone nearly far enough to break these bonds, and they continue to restrict the minds of those who are called