ABSTRACT
An impressive number of recent discussions centering on economic relationships conclude with a call for a new morality. The century-old dreams of freedom from physical necessity have come true today to an unprecedented extent. But as men begin to sense that they have a real choice—as men begin to understand that the freedom they dreamt of and wrote about for centuries is not a careless Eldorado, some seem to shrink away from the challenge in despair. One cannot help but get the impression from the writings of many modern commentators that there is virtue in despair and a profundity in cynicism. A better analogy than the sorcerer's apprentice, who "turned on" but could not "turn off," is perhaps the man who strives and works so hard to get ahead that when he finally strikes it rich he has forgotten what he was striving for. And so, remembering the good old times when problems presented themselves and the path was dictated by the necessity of keeping body and soul together, the noveau riche is perhaps compelled to confuse behavior from necessity with behavior from virtue.
