Chapter One of Keynes' TGT

The paragraph quote below is the entire chapter one of Keynes' most famous book, The General Theory. Though written approximately 75 years ago, this introductory message could just as easily be directed at government policy-makers today.  Note, especially, the last sentence and reference to "...the characteristics of the special case..." (Keynes 3).  It is imperative for any economics scholar to understand that Keynes, by this concluding statement, is describing not only the whole premise of his theory, but also the purpose of the title, TGT.

That "special case" is literally a situation so rare, that it shouldn't be a basis for policy-making whether in the 1930's, or today.

                                                                     Source:  Google Images

                                   Chapter One of The General Theory

"I have called this book, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, placing the emphasis on the prefix general.  The object of such a title is to contrast the character of my arguments and conclusions with those of the classical theory of the subject, upon which I was brought up and which dominates the economic thought, both practical and theoretical, of the governing and academic classes of this generation, as it has for a hundred years past.  I shall argue that the postulates of the classical theory are applicable to a special case only and not to the general case, the situation which it assumes being a limiting point of the possible positions of equilibrium.  Moreover, the characteristics of the special case assumed by the classical theory happen not to be those of the economic society which we actually live, with the result that its teaching is misleading and disastrous if we attempt to apply it to the facts of experience."
                                                                      -- John Maynard Keynes