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Economics Quotes

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Economics Quotes

“The fundamental differences between Marxian and traditional orthodox economics are, first, that the orthodox economists accept the capitalist system as part of the eternal order of Nature, while Marx regards it as a passing phase in the transition from the feudal economy of the past to the socialist economy of the future.”

Source: Essay on Marxian Economics

“The obsession with gold, actually and politically, occurs among those who regard economics as a branch of morality. Gold is solid, gold is durable, gold is rare, gold is even (in certain very peculiar circumstances) convertible. To believe in thrift, solidity and soundness is to believe in some way in the properties of gold.”

Way Believe Certain Money Circumstances Morality Economics Gold Regard Property Obsession Branches Peculiar Thrift Solidity Soundness

Author:Christopher Hitchens

“In view of the importance of philanthropy in our society, it is surprising that so little attention has been given to it by economic or social theorists. In economic theory, especially, the subject is almost completely ignored. This is not, I think, because economists regard mankind as basically selfish or even because economic man is supposed to act only in his self-interest; it is rather because economics has essentially grown up around the phenomenon of exchange and its theoretical structure rests heavily on this process.”

“I think that there are non-physical laws all right: genuine (if not strict) laws written in the language of biology, economics, and so on. But I don't regard that as a contentious issue. Even reductionists about chemistry will think that there are special chemical laws whose formulation makes essential use of chemical terminology.”

Ifs Thinking Use Law Language Issues Written Special Essentials Economics Regard Genuine Biology Chemistry Chemicals Strict Terminology Contentious Strict Laws

Author:David Papineau

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.”

“In raising the price of commodities, the rise of wages operates in the same manner as simple interest does in the accumulation of debt. Our merchants and master manufacturers complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price, and thereby lessening the sale of their goods, both at home and abroad. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits; they are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people.”

People Doe Philosophy Political Interest Simple Effects Masters Gains Economics Regard Silent Profit Complaining Goods Commodity Wages Compounds Merchants Pernicious Compound Interest

Author:Adam Smith

“Capitalism is not only a better form of organizing human activity than any deliberate design, any attempt to organize it to satisfy particular preferences, to aim at what people regard as beautiful or pleasant order, but it is also the indispensable condition for just keeping that population alive which exists already in the world. I regard the preservation of what is known as the capitalist system, of the system of free markets and the private ownership of the means of production, as an essential condition of the very survival of mankind.”

“The greatest danger to liberty today comes from the men who are most needed and most powerful in modern government, namely, the efficient expert administrators exclusively concerned with what they regard as the public good.”

Men Government Today Powerful Liberty Economic Modern Danger He Man Needed Concerned Economics Regard Experts Most Powerful Efficient Public Good Administrators

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed.”

Doe Earth Heaven Liberty Economic Economics Let Me Absolutes Regard Tyranny Versions Suspects Heaven On Earth Absolute Power

Author:Barry Goldwater

“The high rate of unemployment among teenagers, and especially black teenagers, is both a scandal and a serious source of social unrest. Yet it is largely a result of minimum wage laws. We regard the minimum wage law as one of the most, if not the most, anti-black laws on the statute books.”

Ifs Book Law Social Black Results Liberty Serious Source Economics Regard Rate Libertarian Teenager Libertarianism Minimum Unemployment Scandal Minimum Wage Unrest Statutes Social Unrest

Author:Milton Friedman

“It is perhaps the most characteristic feature of the intellectual that he judges new ideas not by their specific merits but by the readiness with which they fit into his general conceptions, into the picture of the world which he regards as modern or advanced.”

World Ideas Philosophy Political Modern Judging Fit Intellectual Economics Regard Features Merit Characteristics Conception New Ideas Readiness

Author:Friedrich August von Hayek

“Political economy regards the proletarian like a horse, he must receive enough to enable him to work. It does not consider him, during the time when he is not working, as a human being. It leaves this to criminal law, doctors, religion, statistical tables, politics, and the beadle.”

Source: Early Writings

“We no longer see the world as a single entity. We've moved to cities and we think the economy is what gives us our life, that if the economy is strong we can afford garbage collection and sewage disposal and fresh food and water and electricity. We go through life thinking that money is the key to having whatever we want, without regard to what it does to the rest of the world.”

Ifs Thinking World Want Life Giving Doe Strong Water Cities Economy Environment Our Lives Keys Economics Regard Moved Collections Entity Electricity Garbage Fresh Food Sewage

Author:David Suzuki

“Progressive companies regard climate change as an opportunity rather than a threat”

Opportunity Business Company Economics Regard Management Threat Climate Climate Change Progressive

Author:Tom DeLay

“My Prime Minister regards the economy as our highest priority and forgets that economics and ecology are derived from the same Greek word, oikos, meaning household or domain. Ecology is the study of home, while economics is its management. Ecologists try to define the conditions and principles that enable a species to survive and flourish. Yet in elevating the economy above those principles, we seem to think we are immune to the laws of nature. We have to put the ‘eco’ back into economics.”

“We would, however, perform an injustice to the bourgeois women's rights movement if we would regard it as solely motivated by economics. No, this movement also contains a more profound spiritual and moral aspect.”

Ifs Spiritual Women Moral Rights Movement Aspect Economics Regard Profound Injustice Motivated Womens Rights Bourgeois Profound Spiritual

Author:Clara Zetkin