“Roughly two billion people participate in the money economy, with less than half of those living in the wealthy countries of the developed world. These affluent 800 million, however, account for more than 75 percent of the world's energy and resource consumption, and also create the bulk of its industrial, toxic, and consumer waste.” PeopleWorldTwoCountryEnergyHalfMillionsEconomyWastePercentResourcesAccountsBillionsConsumersWealthyToxicConsumptionConsumerismOverconsumptionAffluent Author:Stuart L. Hart
“If we functionally define a capitalist household as one that receives at least half of the annual income it spends on consumption in the form of return on invested capital, less than 1 percent of United States households are capitalists.” IfsStatesWisdomFormPoliticsUnitedHalfUnited StatesEconomyReturnPercentIncomeLiberalismCapitalistHouseholdConsumptionAnnuals Author:Louis O. Kelso
“The potential gains from improved stabilization policies are on the order of hundredths of a percent of consumption, perhaps two orders of magnitude smaller than the potential benefits of available supply-side fiscal reforms.” TwoOrderSidesPolicyBenefitsPercentGainsEconomicsAvailableReformConsumptionMagnitude Author:Robert Lucas, Jr.
“Somebody's buying these treasury bills at 1/20th of one percent. I mean we consuming about $2 billion a day of goods and services beyond what we're producing.And it reflects American's consumption ideas rather than its savings ideas.” MeanIdeasPercentBillsBillionsSavingBuyingGoodsConsumptionSavingsConsumingTreasuryGoods And ServicesTreasury Bill Author:Howard Warren Buffett
“Although population and consumption are societal issues, technology is the business of business. If economic activity must increase tenfold over what it is today to support a population nearly double its current size, then technology will have to reduce its impact twenty-fold merely to keep the planet at its current levels of environmental impact. For example, to stabilize the climate we may have to reduce real carbon emissions by as much as 80 percent, while simultaneously growing the world economy by an order of magnitude.” IfsWorldMayRealTodayOrderLevelsTechnologySupportEconomyIssuesGrowingEconomicExamplePlanetsActivityPercentIncreaseTwentiesImpactClimateEnvironmentalSizePopulationCurrentsSustainabilityConsumptionCarbonFoldsEmissionsMagnitudeWorld EconomyCarbon EmissionsEnvironmental Impact Book:Capitalism at the Crossroads: Next Generation Business Strategies for a Post-Crisis World Source: Capitalism at the Crossroads: Next Generation Business Strategies for a Post-Crisis World
“I think in some ways it would make more sense to have as a poverty level a relative concept and say, the level of poverty is that level of income or that level of consumption below which 10 percent of the people now are.” PeopleThinkingWayLevelsPovertyPercentConceptsIncomeRelativeConsumption Author:Milton Friedman
“An aggressive building performance standard for all new buildings, and a set of performance requirements to be met by all buildings before they can be sold (when upgrades can be included in the new mortgage). These should encompass heating and cooling, lighting, and plug loads. Coupled with new efficiency standards for appliances, lights, and furnaces, this should reduce the energy consumption of new buildings by 50 percent, more or less immediately, and go on from there.” ShouldLightEnergyBuildingGoes OnMetsStandardsPercentPerformancesAggressiveLoadConsumptionEfficiencyRequirementsLightingMortgagePlugsFurnacesAppliancesHeatingCoolingEnergy Consumption Author:Denis Hayes
“I assumed that the pencil market was collapsing, but then it turns out that from 2010 to 2011 in the United States, pencil consumption went up by over six percent. I mean, those are all foreign-made pencils. Those are probably Chinese pencils, mostly, and Mexican pencils. I mean, it is an archaic communication technology, but it is still ubiquitous.” MeanMadeStillsStatesTurnsUnitedTechnologyUnited StatesCommunicationSixPercentChineseConsumptionPencilsMexicanCommunication Technology Author:David Rees
“If top marginal income tax rates are set too high, they discourage productive economic activity. In the limit, a top marginal income tax rate of 100 percent would mean that taxpayers would gain nothing from working harder or investing more. In contrast, a higher top marginal rate on consumption would actually encourage savings and investment. A top marginal consumption tax rate of 100 percent would simply mean that if a wealthy family spent an extra dollar, it would also owe an additional dollar of tax.” IfsMeanEconomicHigherActivityLimitsTaxesPercentGainsHarderDollarsInvestmentRateInvestingIncomeSavingExtrasProductiveWealthyContrastConsumptionTaxpayersSavingsDiscouragingIncome TaxSavings And Investment Author:Robert H. Frank