#economic

While there are certainly informational spillovers as ideas move from person to person, it is hard to see why in most instances they are not priced. Although it is possible to imagine examples such as the wheelbarrow where an idea cannot be used without revealing the secret, relatively few ideas are of this type. For copyrightable creations such as books, music, plays, movies and art, unpriced spillovers obviously play little role. A book, a CD or a work of art must be purchased before it can be used, and the creator is free to make use of his creation in the privacy of his home without revealing the secret to the public at large. Similarly with movies or plays. In all cases, the creation must effectively be purchased before the “secret” is revealed. ↗

— Michele Boldrin

#art

The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups. ↗

— Henry Hazlitt

#any #art #consequences #consists #economics

If nonsatiety were the natural state of human nature then aggressive want-stimulating advertising would not be necessary, nor would the barrage of novelty aimed at promoting dissatisfaction with last year's model. The system attempts to remake people to fit its own presuppositions. If people's wants are not naturally insatiable we must make them so, in order to keep the system going. ↗

— Herman E. Daly

#consumerism #desire #economics #nature

Sometime I'm going to do an essay called 'The Virtues of Amateurism' for all of those people who wish they earned their living in the arts. The market kills more artistic people than anything else. It's a world of safety out there, for most people. They want safety, the magazines and manufacturers give them safety, give them homogeneity, give them the familiar and comfortable, don't challenge them. ↗

— Robert James Waller

#economics #marketing #politics #science #art

I’m a man of leisure. That’s because I have an English degree and can’t get a job.
 ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#degree #economic-depression #english #job #leisure

In the long run managements stressing accounting appearance over economic substance usually achieve little of either. ↗

— Warren Buffett

#business #economic #principals #business

Used to the conditions of a capitalistic environment, the average American takes it for granted that every year business makes something new and better accessible to him. Looking backward upon the years of his own life, he realizes that many implements that were totally unknown in the days of his youth and many others which at that time could be enjoyed only by a small minority are now standard equipment of almost every household. He is fully confident that this trend will prevail also in the future. He simply calls it the American way of life and does not give serious thought to the question of what made this continuous improvement in the supply of material goods possible. ↗

— Ludwig von Mises

#economics #freedom #liberty #business

Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist. ↗

— Kenneth Boulding

#economics #business

Essentially we need a new social consensus for economic reform as New Labour has achieved in Britain. ↗

— Peter Mandelson

#britain #consensus #economic #essentially #labour

Governments are deemed to succeed or fail by how well they make money go round, regardless of whether it serves any useful purpose. They regard it as a sacred duty to encourage the country’s most revolting spectacle: the annual feeding frenzy in which shoppers queue all night, then stampede into the shops, elbow, trample and sometimes fight to be the first to carry off some designer junk which will go into landfill before the sales next year. The madder the orgy, the greater the triumph of economic management. ↗

— George Monbiot

#economics #environment #government #shopping #design