Quotes About Economics

As figure 5.1 shows, in the past the United States was not more economically stratified than other countries, but the last thirty years have seen exceptional growth in the incomes of the richest Americans.

The poor have been getting richer faster in the poor states and the rich have been getting richer faster in the rich states; see figure 5.3.

Tim Ferriss's version of geoarbitrage – using cheap production and labor in one part of the world and selling to high-paying customers in the West

The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality.

A movie needs to have a must-see quality among the people you are targeting. Also, make movies at a responsible budget so that if you attract your core audience, and they show up in the first few weekends, the economics will work.

We're more familiar with what economists call an English auction - prices start low and rise as people bid. However, there is also the Dutch auction, where prices start high and go lower until somebody bites. Movies are sold to the audience via a very slow Dutch auction, where each phase between price drops can last weeks or months.

Earlier we used to enjoy films for 25 weeks, Silver jubilee, and Golden jubilee; but now it takes only 3 days to recover the cost.

I think I'm fairly good with money, but I've developed some strange tics - in shops I don't like to go to the counter unless I've got at least two things to buy. If I'm walking around with just one thing in my hand I'll put it back and wait a few weeks because that doesn't seem like a proper purchase.

High levels of economic inequality lead to imbalances in political power, as those at the top use their economic weight to shape our politics in ways that give them more economic power.

Markets do very weird things because it reacts to how people behave, and sometimes people are a little screwy.

If we fix our economic system and invest in the human capital of the poor, then we should welcome every new person born as a source of betterment for our world and all of us on it.

The welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income as defined by the GDP.

The fundamental flaw in Social Security and Medicare is that they violate the 'welfare principle' in economics. The welfare principle forms the fundamental basis of all charitable work in churches and other private organizations: assist those who need help, and equally important, don't assist individuals who can take care of themselves.

I don't believe in welfare.

I wrote my thesis on welfare policy.

G.D.P. is not a measure of how much value is produced for consumers. Everybody should recognize that G.D.P. is not a welfare metric.

The real purpose of welfare is to get rid of poor people entirely. Everybody knows welfare has bad effects; that's the point.

Economics evolved as a more moral and more egalitarian approach to policy than prevailed in its surrounding milieu. Let's cherish and extend that heritage. The real contributions of economics to human welfare might turn out to be very different from what most people - even most economists - expect.

Reagan was president and had Democrats control the House and Senate, and they reformed the tax code. Clinton was president, and he had Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole; they reformed welfare and balanced the budget.

Corporate welfare isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Markets are, in many settings, self-organizing and 'efficient' in terms of maximizing the welfare of both buyers and sellers.

I'm against corporate welfare.

You wouldn't want to underestimate the perfidy of the government. I have no doubt that the government will need to increase revenues substantially to avoid default on either debt or social welfare promises. How they will increase those revenues, I can't predict.

The biggest and most deadly 'tax' rate on the poor comes from a loss of various welfare state benefits - food stamps, housing subsidies and the like - if their income goes up.