“Henry Ford made a lot of money making cars at one time, but that was a small advantage to him compared to the benefit to millions of people who for the first time in their lives were emancipated from common public carriers and could live where they wanted, move at the hours they wanted, to the places they wanted. Ford collected a billion bucks, but that was peanuts compared to the benefits.” PeopleFirstsMadeWantedMovingHoursMoneyCommonMillionsCarBenefitsFirst TimeAdvantageBillionsMaking MoneyOne TimeLots Of MoneyBucksPeanutsCarrier Author:George Stigler
“The simple index fund solution has been adopted as a cornerstone of investment strategy for many of the nation's pension plans operated by our giant corporations and state and local governments. Indexing is also the predominant strategy for the largest of them all, the retirement plan for federal government employees, the Federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). The plan has been a remarkable success, and now holds some $173 billion of assets for the benefit of our public servants and members of armed services.” Has BeensStatesGovernmentNationsSimplePlansMembersBenefitsSolutionsStrategyInvestmentInvestingBillionsLocalsSavingCorporationsServantGiantsEmployeeRemarkableFundRetirementAssetsFederal GovernmentAdoptedSavingsPensionCornerstonesThriftPublic ServantsLocal GovernmentIndex FundsArmed ServicesGovernment EmployeesIndexingPension Plans Author:David F. Swensen
“We can decide that the presence of cancer-causing substances in our air, water, and food is too expensive. A 2009 study, for example, has found that coal miners in Appalachia costs the region five times more in premature deaths, including from cancer, than it provides to the region in jobs, taxes, and economic benefits. In California, the production and use of hazardous chemicals cost the state $2.6 billion in 2004 alone in lost wages and health-care expenses to treat workers and children with pollution-linked diseases.” ChildrenStatesUseCareJobsFoundLostWaterStudyFiveAirEconomicExampleCostTaxesDiseaseBenefitsTreatsEnvironmentalWorkersIncludingCancerProductionsBillionsHealth CareSubstanceCaliforniaExpensiveRegionsExpensesChemicalsPollutionWagesCoalLinkedPrematureMinersAppalachiaCoal MinersPremature Death Author:Sandra Steingraber
“The benefits of a modest warming would outweigh the costs - by $8.4 billion a year in 1990 dollars by the year 2060, according to Robert Mendelsohn at Yale University - thanks to longer growing seasons, more wood fiber production, lower construction costs, lower mortality rates, and lower rates of morbidity (illness).” YearsGrowingCostBenefitsSeasonsDollarsRateUniversityIllnessProductionsWoodsBillionsThanksMortalityConstructionModestFiberYaleMorbidityYale University Author:Joseph L. Bast
“There is no excuse for a billion dollar industry to have somebody who's pushing papers on an administrative level - which is still very important in terms of getting projects done - it's imbalanced and completely illogical and example of how badly this art form has been rapped... for them niggas to have health care benefits but for themselves to share in no part to that? It's very telling about the climate of the music industry.” Has BeensArtStillsImportantDoneCareFormTermLevelsShareExampleIndustryPaperBenefitsProjectsDollarsClimateExcuseBillionsHealth CarePushingPapersMusic IndustryNo ExcusesIllogicalAdministrative Author:Immortal Technique
“You have to be willing to spend an awful lot in that R&D phase before you see the benefits. When you look at the companies that have really won customers over in technology - say, Apple and Google - you find that they spend billions of dollars on R&D each year, often spending that much on a product before they ever make a dime back in profits.” YearsLooksCompanyTechnologyWillingProductsBenefitsDollarsProfitCustomersSpendingBillionsAwfulApplesPhasesGoogleDimes Author:Ramez Naam
“The fact that refugees traveled through six other countries, like former Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, France, Germany, Holland, is because they like our social benefits. They like our welfare state. They know which country to pick. They're not going to stay in Hungary or in Estonia. They come to Germany, to Holland. And people sense that those are not the real refugees. And our government has spent billions of euros on them, and the Dutch people know.” PeopleKnowsRealCountryStatesFactsGovernmentSocialSixBenefitsPicksBillionsFormerFranceWelfareGermanyOther CountriesTraveledRefugeeDutchEuroWelfare StateSwitzerlandHollandAustriaHungaryYugoslaviaEstoniaMacedonia Author:Geert Wilders
“You can think of the Health Impact Fund as a mechanism that would keep the benefits and burdens of pharmaceutical innovation for the affluent roughly as they are while massively reducing the burdens presently imposed upon the poor. This sounds like magic. But it really works because the current system is not Pareto efficient. It's a system that generates hundreds of billions of dollars in litigation costs and deadweight losses that HIF-registered medicines would sidestep. By avoiding these losses, the HIF reform can bring improvements all around - including for pharmaceutical innovators.” ThinkingSoundLossPoorMagicCostBenefitsInnovationImpactDollarsMedicineIncludingCurrentsBurdenBillionsImprovementReformFundMechanismEfficientAvoidingWeight LossReducingInnovatorsAffluentPharmaceutical Author:Thomas Pogge
“People know that billions of pounds are wasted. Billions of pounds never get near the families that need it. It is an absolute outrage that hard-working people go out to work every day, get up early, come back late, don't see enough of their families in order to pay taxes to fund vast bureaucracies that are inefficient in order to fund a welfare system which allows too many people to sit for the whole of their lives on out-of-work benefits without going out to look for work.” PeopleKnowsNeedsLooksHardEnoughWholeOrderPayHard WorkTaxesBenefitsLateAbsolutesBillionsGet UpWelfarePoundsFundGoing OutBureaucracyOutrageUp Early Author:George Osborne
“Who most benefits from keeping marijuana illegal? The greatest beneficiaries are the major criminal organizations in Mexico and elsewhere that earn billions of dollars annually from this illicit trade - and who would rapidly lose their competitive advantage if marijuana were a legal commodity.” IfsLosesBenefitsMajorsAdvantageOrganizationTradeDollarsCriminalsBillionsIllegalMarijuanaMexicoElsewhereCommodityCompetitive AdvantageBeneficiaries Author:George Soros
“Governments that invest billions in new hardware still find it hard to accept that they might benefit just as much from systematic innovation in such things as child development or cutting crime.” ChildrenStillsHardGovernmentMightAcceptingCuttingCrimeDevelopmentBenefitsInnovationBillionsSystematicHardwareChild Development Author:Geoff Mulgan
“Contrast 1968, when the CEO of General Motors took home, in pay and benefits, about sixty-six times the amount paid to a typical GM worker. Today the CEO of Wal-Mart earns nine hundred times the wages of his average employee. Indeed, the wealth of the Wal-Mart founder's family in 2005 was estimated at about the same ($90 billion) as that of the bottom 40% of the US population: 120 million people.” PeopleHomeTodayWealthPayMillionsAmountSixBenefitsHundredPaidWorkersBottomAveragePopulationBillionsNineEmployeeContrastSixtyFoundersTypicalCeoWagesMotorGeneral Motors Book:Ill Fares the Land Source: Ill Fares the Land