Jack Vance died today.
I love his work, and I enjoy his trenchant and mordant satire of economics, sociology, and anthropology. Apparently, Henry does as well: The Spirit of Market Capitalism in Master Twango’s Establishment at Lutic
[T]he superstition that the budget must be balanced at all times, once it is debunked, takes away one of the bulwarks that every society must have against expenditure out of control. . . . [O]ne of the functions of old-fashioned religion was to scare people by sometimes what might be regarded as myths into behaving in a way that long-run civilized life requires.
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