Quotes from Barry Asmus

some nations have tried to bring about more economic equality in economically harmful ways, not through opening up free markets but through brute use of government power. Making equality a more important goal than overall economic growth is a mistake for a government, because merely distributing the same amount of wealth in different ways does not change the total amount of wealth a nation produces each year, which is the only way that any nation has grown from poverty to prosperity.

poor. They argue that greater economic equality is a matter of simple justice that governments should enforce. We certainly agree with the goal of helping the poor share in more of the wealth of a nation, and in several sections of the following chapters we discuss ways this can happen through fair, open, market-based solutions.7 The goal of this entire book is finding truly workable, sustainable ways to overcome poverty. However, some

Today, more than half of the people in our world live on less than $2 each per day, and one billion people are mired in extreme poverty, living on less than $1 each per day.

The results have been devastating. Today, more than half of the people in our world live on less than $2 each per day, and one billion people are mired in extreme poverty, living on less than $1 each per day.

Frederick Catherwood rightly says "The teaching ofthe bible would appear to be that it is not the amount of a man's wealth which matters. What matters is the method by which he acquires it, how he uses it, and his attitude of mind toward it.

there is no thought in the Bible that poor people would become permanent recipients of gifts of money, year after year, or would become dependent on such gifts. The only exceptions were people who were completely unable to work due to permanent disabilities,

human beings glorify God by achieving much more than survival. We glorify Him by understanding and ruling over the creation and then producing more and more wonderful goods from it for our enjoyment, with thanksgiving to God.

Entrepreneurs continually demonstrate that faith and imagination are the most important capital goods in a changing economy, and that wealth is a product less of money than of the mind to create, produce, invest, and, in the often-repeated expression of Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, to creatively destroy (to shut down businesses that are not working).

The typical poverty program creates dependency, robs people of dignity, stifles initiative, and can foster a "What have you done for me lately?" sense of entitlement.

The cultural value that the purpose of government is to serve and bring benefit to the people as a whole will likely serve as the single greatest deterrent against corruption in government.

Incentives matter. Pay and working conditions matter. This is another reason why economic freedom matters.

No other economic system has brought any country from poverty to prosperity. A free-market system is the only type that offers a workable alternative and resilient counterforce to the failed -isms and systems discussed in the previous chapter.