Quotes About Politics

Freedom must be distinguished from democracy, with which it is often confused.

Have you gone crazy, Lefty?" "No. On the contrary, I have become educated." "Sometimes that's worse, these days.

Such are the ways of politics, where the crusade of the hour often blocks out everything else, at least until another crusade comes along and takes over the same monopoly of our minds.

It is scary how easily so many people can be brainwashed by sheer repetition of a word.

Minimum wage laws appear to give low-income workers something for nothing—and appearances are what count in politics. Realities can be left to others, so long as appearances get votes.

Empirically, political activity and political success have been neither necessary nor sufficient for economic advancement. Nor has eager political participation or outstanding success in politics been translated into faster group achievement.

Only after that political support is strong enough to cause fallacious ideas to become government policies and programs are the missing or ignored factors likely to lead to "unintended consequences," a phrase often heard in the wake of economic or social policy disasters.

The next time you see a bum leaving drug needles in a park where children play or urinating in the street, you are seeing your tax dollars at work and the end result of the vision of the anointed.

Politics is not about empirical realities, but about popular images. So long as the image of rent control is good, it wins votes at election time-and that is what it is all about, as far as politicians are concerned.

Friedrich Engels' first draft of the Communist Manifesto included a deliberate undermining of family bonds as part of the Marxian political agenda,100 though Marx himself was politically astute enough to leave that out of the final version.

What was said of Romania's institutions of higher education between the two World Wars—that they were numerically swollen, academically rather lax, and politically overheated, as well as veritable incubators of surplus bureaucrats, politicians, and demagogues56—could be said of such institutions in other nations in Eastern and Southeastern Europe during that era and in various nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America in later times.

Put bluntly, failure attracts more money than success. Politically, failure becomes a reason to demand more money...

Bajo un gobierno electo popularmente, los incentivos políticos son hacer lo que es popular, a pesar de sus posibles consecuencias negativas, o hacer algo tan popular como sea posible

Black votes matter to many politicians — more so than black lives. That is why such politicians must try to keep black voters fearful, angry and resentful. Racial harmony would be a political disaster for such politicians. Racial polarization makes both the black population and the white population worse off, but it makes politicians who depend on black votes better off.

High voter turnout, which some equate with a healthy democracy, has been in Nigeria (and in some other countries) an indication instead of a fever pitch of political polarization.

massive role of government in the economy has made politics the pre-eminent route to prosperity, as well as power-whether for individuals, tribes, or regions.

A Yoruba governor, defeated through vote fraud, was later found by a court to have won in fact by a million votes.

Whether people are united by navigable waterways or cut off by rugged mountains or other geographical barriers has enormous cultural as well as economic and political significance.

Since democratic elections are always held in the short term, politicians have every incentive to extract as much wealth as possible from the fixed capital under their jurisdiction, whether through taxes, the imposition of charges on property or of the expropriation. Only public awareness of the long-term consequences can limit this form of exploitation.

The success of politicians does not depend on their learning their lessons about history or politics, but depends much more on having the ability to act on what is widely believed by the public and the media, which may include theories conspiracies or the belief that the higher prices are due to deception or greed.

To understand most of the discussions about economics that take place in the media and in politics, all you need is to know the most basic economic principles. However, most of the people are unaware of them, including politicians, journalists and many academics from other fields.

No one likes to admit being mistaken but, under the incentives and constraints of profit and loss, there is often no choice but to reverse course before financial losses threaten bankruptcy. In politics, however, the costs of the government's mistakes are often paid by the taxpayers, while the costs of admitting mistakes are paid by elected officials.

The political left's attempts to silence ideas they cannot, or will not, debate are a confession of intellectual bankruptcy.

Para entender la mayoría de las discusiones sobre economía que se producen en los medios de comunicación y en la política, lo único que se necesita es conocer los principios económicos más básicos. No obstante, la mayor parte de las personas los desconocen, incluidos políticos, periodistas y muchos académicos de otros ámbitos.