“Greater consumption due to increase in population and growth of income heightens scarcity and induces price run-ups. A higher price represents an opportunity that leads inventors and businesspeople to seek new ways to satisfy the shortages. Some fail, at cost to themselves. A few succeed, and the final result is that we end up better off than if the original shortage problems had never arisen. That is, we need our problems, though this does not imply that we should purposely create additional problems for ourselves.” IfsWayNeedsShouldDoeEndsProblemRunningOpportunityGrowthResultsGreaterFailingHigherCostSucceedIncreaseOriginalsFinalsPopulationDuesIncomeConsumptionNew WaysBetter OffInventorShortageScarcity Author:Julian Simon
“Inflation is not a Robin Hood, taking from the rich to give to the poor. Rather, it deals most cruelly with those who can least protect themselves. It strikes hardest those millions of our citizens whose incomes do not quickly rise with the cost of living. When prices soar, the pensioner and the widow see their security undermined, the man of thrift sees his savings melt away; the white collar worker, the minister, and the teacher see their standards of living dragged down.” MenGivingWhitePoorDealsMillionsRichTeacherSecurityHe ManCitizensCostProtectStandardsWorkersStrikesIncomeHardestSavingMinistersSoarInflationSavingsHoodWidowsCollarsRobinsStandards Of LivingThriftRobin HoodWhite CollarCost Of Living Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
“I am too sick to work and haven't money enough to last 2 months and pay income tax. I want to keep going but do not see quite how, and there is no alternative - rather than justify my mother's 25-year dread of my "coming back on her, sick," I must kill myself. If she has to pay funeral costs, at least she will cut them to the bone and I will not be here to endure her martyrdom and prolong it by living.” IfsWantYearsEnoughLastsMotherPayCuttingHavensMonthsCostTaxesSickEndureBonesIncomeAlternativesJustifyKeep GoingFuneralDreadComing BackIncome TaxMartyrdom Author:Rose Wilder Lane
“I had, in my legal practice, often encountered really shocking examples of the devastating impact of the costs of long-term medical care on meagre incomes. And, just before I was elected, I had my own personal experience in paying very considerable bills for my mother's terminal illness.” LongCareMotherTermMy OwnPracticeExampleCostImpactBillsIllnessMedicalIncomeLong TermShockingPersonal ExperiencesTerminalMedical CareTerminal Illness Author:Judy LaMarsh
“When two working people decide to marry, their federal income tax is usually increased. As soon as one spouse earns at least 20 percent of a married couple's total income, the couple pays a 'marriage tax.' ... The United States is the only major industrialized nation in the free world in which the tax cost of the second [married] earner's entry into the work force is higher than that of the first. On one hand, our government's social policy is to help working women earn equal salaries to those of men, but on the other we have a tax structure that penalizes them when they do so.” PeopleMenWorldFirstsTwoStatesHelpingHandsGovernmentForceNationsSocialUnitedPayUnited StatesPolicyCoupleHigherCostTaxesEqualMarriedMajorsPercentStructureIncomeSexismSpouseSalaryEntryIncome TaxFree WorldMarried CouplesWorking WomenSocial Policy Author:Millicent Fenwick
“If you really think that houses prices are going to go up next year and the year after, you feel if I don't buy it this year, I'm going to have to buy it next year. [...] And when somebody makes it very easy for you to do it by saying you don't really have to put up my money, you can lie about your income a little, or we'll give you 100 percent mortgage, you're going to do it, because everybody that's done it has been proven right. You have what they call social tools, and, you know, you're going to feel like an idiot if you didn't do it, because the house cost more.” IfsThinkingKnowsGivingFeelsYearsLittlesHas BeensDoneLyingNextHouseSocialEasyCostPercentToolsIncomeIdiotProvenNext YearMortgageHouse Prices Author:Howard Warren Buffett
“Get out of debt. In a world of stagnant incomes and rising core expenses like mortgage and health care costs, that's a lot easier said than done. The middle class is under enormous pressure. But families can stop the bleeding by reducing their reliance on debt wherever they can. They can also start fighting back by taking a hard look at whom they do business with and rethinking whether they want tricks-and-traps banks to hold their money. They can also demand that public officials take the side of families over the side of banks.” WorldWantLooksSaidHardDoneCareFightingSidesClassMiddleEasierCostDemandPressureDebtCoreTricksEnormousIncomeHealth CareOfficialsRisingMiddle ClassExpensesTrapsRelianceReducingBleedingMortgageStagnantPublic OfficialsRethinkingHealth Care CostsFighting BackEasier Said Than Done Author:Elizabeth Warren
“1.5 billion people lack proper access to electricity. Many buy kerosene, which can cost 30 percent of their income. It sends millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. And often the lamp will fall over and catch the house on fire. So mothers hate it, but it's their only option.” PeopleYearsMotherHateFallHouseMillionsFireCostPercentAccessBillionsIncomeAtmosphereElectricityCarbonLampsCarbon DioxideMetrics Author:Jacqueline Novogratz
“Annual income is £ 20, the cost is 19, you will feel happiness. If annual income of £ 20, the cost is £ 20.6, you will see suffering” IfsFeelsSufferingCostIncomeAnnuals Author:Charles Dickens
“New and expanded refundable tax credits would raise the fraction of taxpayers paying no income taxes to almost 50% from 38%. This is potentially the most pernicious feature of the president's budget, because it would cement a permanent voting majority with no stake in controlling the cost of general government.” GovernmentPresidentCostTaxesRaisesMajorityCreditIncomePermanentBudgetsFeaturesVotingStakesTaxpayersFractionsIncome TaxCementPernicious Author:Michael J. Boskin
“Transfer payments discourage the recipients from earning income in the present and from investing in their potential to earn income in the future. People respond to a reduced cost of idleness by choosing to be idle more often.” PeopleCostInvestingIncomeIdleEarningIdlenessPaymentDiscouragingTransfers Author:Robert Higgs
“The companies move labor to the lowest-cost markets. And so I don`t - I used to support these agreements. In the Congress, I lost the AFL-CIO endorsement a few years because I supported them. But when middle class incomes are declining, these agreements don`t work well for America.” YearsWellsAmericaMovingUsedLostCompanyClassSupportMiddleCostLaborCongressIncomeMiddle ClassAgreementLowestEndorsementsAflCio Author:Charles Schumer
“[Several candidates talked of problems with the federal Medicare system, particularly concerns about whether it would cover prescription drug costs in the future.] We're asking senior citizens to make a choice between their health and their income, ... Medicare is probably the most difficult challenge we face in the next century, because it has a lot to do with other things besides money.” ProblemFacesChoicesNextDifficultChallengesCenturyCitizensCostDrugConcernAskingIncomeCandidatesSeniorPrescriptionsMedicarePrescription DrugsSenior CitizenChallenges We FaceDifficult Challenges Author:John McCain
“We have to make it easier to be good workers, good parents and good caregivers all at the same time. That's why I've set out a bold vision to make quality, affordable child care available to all Americans and limit the cost to 10 percent of family income.” ChildrenCareParentQualityVisionEasierCostLimitsPercentWorkersAvailableBe GoodIncomeGood WorkAffordableGood ParentCaregiversChild Care Author:Hillary Clinton
“When somebody makes it very easy for you to do it by saying you don't really have to put up my money, you can lie about your income a little, or we'll give you 100 percent mortgage, you're going to do it, because everybody that's done it has been proven right. You have social tools, and you're going to feel like an idiot if you didn't do it, because the house cost more.” IfsGivingFeelsLittlesHas BeensDoneLyingHouseSocialEasyCostPercentToolsIncomeIdiotProvenMortgage Author:Warren Buffett
“If a woman is making $85,000 a year, putting aside 20% of her income, putting it in a bank, earning very little...Over the course of her life vs. investing, this can cost her $1.5 million, $2 million, $2.5 million. Life changing amounts.” IfsYearsLittlesCoursesMillionsAmountCostInvestingIncomeLife ChangingEarning Author:Sallie Krawcheck
“Many decry rising inequality because it makes those who've fallen behind feel impoverished. But it's done much more than cause hurt feelings. It has also raised the real cost to middle-income families of achieving many basic goals. The process begins with the completely unremarkable fact that top earners have been spending at a substantially higher rate than before. They've been building bigger mansions, staging more elaborate weddings and coming-of-age parties for their kids, buying more and better of everything.” FeelsHas BeensRealDoneFactsFeelingsKidsAgeCausesProcessGoalHurtPartyBehindsMiddleAchieveBuildingHigherCostBiggerRaisedRateSpendingIncomeInequalityFallenRisingBuyingComing Of AgeHurt FeelingsMansionsStaging Author:Robert H. Frank
“Requiring the payment of higher wages will lead to a loss of some jobs and a raising of prices which drives companies to search for automation to reduce costs. On the other hand, those receiving higher wages will spend more (the marginal propensity to consume is close to 1 for low income earners) and this will increase demand for additional goods and services. Henry Ford had the clearest vision of why companies can actually benefit by paying higher wages.” HandsJobsLossCompanyVisionHigherCostDemandBenefitsLowsIncreaseIncomeGoodsReceivingWagesPaymentPropensityGoods And ServicesLow IncomeAutomation Author:Philip Kotler
“A $1.7 billion average increase in electricity costs is estimated to result in a $1.3 billion decrease in personal income and a loss of 13,000 more jobs in the region.” JobsLossResultsCostIncreaseTransformationAverageBillionsIncomeRegionsElectricityDecrease Author:Greg Walden