#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

As with our earlier worship of saints and facts, there is something silly about grown men and women striving to reduce their vision of themselves and of civilization to bean counting. The message of the competition/efficiency/marketplace Trinity seems to be that we should drop the idea of ourselves developed over two and a half millennia. We are no longer beings distinguished by our ability to think and to act consciously in order to affect our circumstances. Instead we should passively submit ourselves and our whole civilization -- our public structures, social forms and cultural creativity -- to the abstract forces of unregulated commerce. It may be that most citizens have difficulty with the argument and would prefer to continue working on the idea of dignified human intelligence. If they must drop something, they would probably prefer to drop the economists. ↗

— John Ralston Saul

#intelligence

Decided to put aside ethnic differences in the cause of making more money. ↗

— Terry Pratchett

#humor #money

It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance. ↗

— Murray N. Rothbard

#science

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

A limited state with free economic systems is the soil where the liberty tree blossoms. ↗

— Orrin Woodward

#freedom #libertarianism #liberty #freedom

Perhaps he has confused making money with freedom. ↗

— John Charles Chasteen

#freedom #greed #freedom

Organized money hates me--and I welcome their hatred! ↗

— Franklin D. Roosevelt

#money

Small businesses are the economic drivers of our country, providing the stimulus our communities need. ↗

— Melissa Bean

#communities #country #drivers #economic #need

Since the 1980s, we have given the rich a bigger slice of our pie in the belief that they would create more wealth, making the pie bigger than otherwise possible in the long run. The rich got the bigger slice of the pie all right, but they have actually reduced the pace at which the pie is growing. ↗

— Ha-Joon Chang

#change