My office has a view of low-cost housing, old East German prefabricated apartment buildings. It isn't an attractive view, but it's very helpful, because it reminds me to ask myself, whenever there is a decision to be made, whether the people who live there can afford our decisions.
The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare, no matter what happens to the world, that's not equity, it's just creating a society where you can't ask anything of people.
Gracie Allen, Comedian (1895) |
Blake Edwards, Director (1922) |
Elliott Erwitt, Photographer (1928) |
Paul Gallico, Writer (1897) |
Susan George, Activist (1950) |
Dorothy Hamill, Athlete (1956) |
Joseph Jackson, Businessman (1929) |
Mick Jagger, Musician (1943) |
George Gallup, Businessman (1984) |
W. Averell Harriman, Politician (1986) |