CH.3 THE PRINCIPLE OF EFFECTIVE DEMAND 33

reached conclusions quite different from what theordinary uninstructed person would expect, added, Isuppose, to its intellectual prestige. That its teaching,translated into practice, was austere and often unpalat-able, lent it virtue. That it was adapted to carry a vastand consistent logical superstructure, gave it beauty.That it could explain much social injustice and apparentcruelty as an inevitable incident in the scheme of pro-gress, and the attempt to change such things as likelyon the whole to do more harm than good, commendedit to authority. That it afforded a measure of justifica-tion to the free activities of the individual capitalist,attracted to it the support of the dominant social forcebehind authority.

But although the doctrine itself has remained un-questioned by orthodox economists up to a late date,its signal failure for purposes of scientific predictionhas greatly impaired, in the course of time, the prestigeof its practitioners. For professional economists, afterMalthus, were apparently unmoved by the lack ofcorrespondence between the results of their theory andthe facts of observation;—a discrepancy which theordinary man has not failed to observe, with the resultof his growing unwillingness to accord to economiststhat measure of respect which he gives to other groupsof scientists whose theoretical results are confirmed byobservation when they are applied to the facts.

The celebrated optimism of traditional economictheory, which has led to economists being looked uponas Candides, who, having left this world for the culti-vation of their gardens, teach that all is for the best inthe best of all possible worlds provided we will let wellalone, is also to be traced, I think, to their havingneglected to take account of the drag on prosperitywhich can be exercised by an insufficiency of effectivedemand. For there would obviously be a naturaltendency towards the optimum employment of re-sources in a Society which was functioning after the

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