Quotes About Policy

The bad economist sees only what immediately strikes the eye; the good economist also looks beyond. The bad economist sees only the direct consequences of a proposed course; the good economist looks also at the longer and indirect consequences. The bad economist sees only what the effect of a given policy has been or will be on one particular group; the good economist inquires also what the effect of the policy will be on all groups.

the larger the percentage of the national income taken by taxes the greater the deterrent to private production and employment. When the total tax burden grows beyond a bearable size, the problem of devising taxes that will not discourage and disrupt production becomes insoluble.

Mere inflation-that is, the mere issuance of more money, with the consequence of higher wages and prices-may look like the creation of more demand. But in terms of the actual production and exchange of real things it is not.

Because information is so accessible and communication instantaneous, there is a diminution of focus on its significance, or even on the definition of what is significant. This dynamic may encourage policymakers to wait for an issue to arise rather than anticipate it, and to regard moments of decision as a series of isolated events rather than part of a historical continuum. When this happens, manipulation of information replaces reflection as the principal policy tool.

Order should not have priority over freedom. But the affirmation of freedom should be elevated from a mood to a strategy.

If the major powers come to practice foreign policies of manipulating a multiplicity of subsovereign units observing ambiguous and often violent rules of conduct, many based on extreme articulations of divergent cultural experiences, anarchy is certain.

So long as strategic nuclear weapons were the principal element of Europe's defense, the objective of European policy was primarily psychological: to oblige the United States to treat Europe as an extension of itself in case of an emergency.

Because the unchecked eastward advance into Manchuria and Korea of Russia—a country that, in Roosevelt's words, "pursued a policy of consistent opposition to us in the East, and of literally fathomless mendacity"—

The ability to enable people to gather in a square differs from building new institutions of state.

elemento indispensável do sucesso de uma política externa é uma estratégia de longo prazo fundada numa análise rigorosa de todos os fatores relevantes.

A insistência impensada em fazer o que é certo pode virar desculpa para deixar de pensar em todas as consequências das políticas, afirma ele. As pessoas que querem usar o poder para mudar o mundo são com frequência idealistas, apesar de os realistas serem vistos mais comumente como pessoas dispostas a usar a força.

the PAP's first nine years in power, Lee set aside nearly one-third of Singapore's budget for education Ã¢â'¬â€œ an astonishing proportion in relation to neighboring countries, or indeed any country in the world.[59]

o equilíbrio de poder precisa de ser reavaliado de tempos a tempos. É ele que desencadeia as guerras cuja dimensão limita.

American approach to policy is pragmatic; China's is conceptual. America has never had a powerful threatening neighbor; China has never been without a powerful adversary on its borders. Americans hold that every problem has a solution; Chinese think that each solution is an admission ticket to a new set of problems. Americans seek an outcome responding to immediate circumstances; Chinese concentrate on evolutionary change.

El renacimiento que experimentó Reino Unido gracias a Thatcher fue un proyecto económico y espiritual. Cuando se convirtió en primera ministra, la decadencia nacional no solo se debía a una

The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.

It is not often that nations learn from the past,even rarer that they draw the correct conclusions from it.

Intellectuals analyze the operations of international systems; statesmen build them.

the government's so-called 'market-driven reforms' of the NHS seemed to be driving the NHS even further away from what went on in the real market of the private sector, in which I was once again a patient.

Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive.

To us, it is incomprehensible that millions of Christian men killed and tortured each other because Napoleon was ambitious or Alexander was firm, or because England's policy was astute or the Duke of Oldenburg was wronged. We cannot grasp what connection such circumstances have the with the actual fact of slaughter and violence: why because the Duke was wronged, thousands of men from the other side of Europe killed and ruined the people of Smolensk and Moscow and were killed by them.

Terror is a powerful means of policy and one would have to be a hypocrite not to understand this.

Under our form of government we count, we do not weigh, opinion. The fact, therefore, that a certain sound principle may long be recognized as such by an economic-informed few is of little consequence. If the majority is wrong in its thinking, then the direction of the whole is more than likely to be equally wrong.

It might be crazy to expect a high government official to speak the truth. It might be crazy to believe that government policy will be something more than the handmaiden of the most powerful interests. It might be crazy to argue that we should preserve a tradition that has been part of our tradition for most of our history -- free culture. If this is crazy, then let there be more crazies. Soon.