David F. Ruccio — Science and socialism

"It's doesn't take an Einstein," although Einstein did put his finger on it.

Occasional Links & Commentary
Science and socialism
David F. Ruccio | Professor of Economics, University of Notre Dame

Paul Ratner — Albert Einstein's Surprising Thoughts on the Meaning of Life

In another passage from 1934, Einstein talks about the value of a human being, reflecting a Buddhist-like approach:

“The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self”.

This theme of liberating the self is also echoed by Einstein later in life, in a 1950 letter to console a grieving father Robert S. Marcus:

“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The striving to free oneself from this delusion is the one issue of true religion. Not to nourish it but to try to overcome it is the way to reach the attainable measure of peace of mind.”

Big Think
Albert Einstein's Surprising Thoughts on the Meaning of Life

Paul Ratner

David F. Ruccio — Capitalism and technology [Stephen Hawking]

Stephen Hawking quote. 

See also Albert Einstein, Why Socialism?

I doesn't take a brilliant physicist to figure this out. 

Occasional Links & Commentary

Capitalism and technology

David F. Ruccio | Professor of Economics, University of Notre Dame

Lars Syll — Einstein’s ‘Not More So’ criterion and macroeconomic modelling (wonkish)

Don't be scared off by the wonkish label. It's basic logic and it's important.

Einstein’s ‘Not More So’ criterion and macroeconomic modelling (wonkish)
Lars P. Syll | Professor, Malmo University

Einstein on capitalism

Albert Einstein in the May 1949 issue of the Monthly Review magazine:

Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society.

"This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population.

"Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information ([pre TV, but] radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.

(h/t Kimball Corson, Einstein should have been a political economist

When the right finds out Einstein was a socialist will they attack relativity as well as evolution?