#economic

We don't think a sustainable society need be stagnant, boring, uniform, or rigid. It need not be, and probably could not be, centrally controlled or authoritarian. It could be a world that has the time, the resources, and the will to correct its mistakes, to innovate, to preserve the fertility of its planetary ecosystems. It could focus on mindfully increasing quality of life rather than on mindlessly expanding material consumption and the physical capital stock. ↗

— Donella H. Meadows

#society #sustainability #life

The individualism of current economic theory is manifest in the purely self-interested behavior it generally assumes. It has no real place for fairness, malevolence, and benevolence, nor for the preservation of human life or any other moral concern. ↗

— Herman E. Daly

#morality #selfishness #life

But while I loved all of these courses, there was an irresistible attraction of economics. ↗

— Joseph Stiglitz

#courses #economics #i #irresistible #loved

There must have been something in the air of Gary that led one into economics: the first Nobel Prize winner, Paul Samuelson, was also from Gary, as were several other distinguished economists. ↗

— Joseph Stiglitz

#also #been #distinguished #economics #economists

Whenever a state or an individual cited 'insufficient funds' as an excuse for neglecting this important thing or that, it was indicative of the extent to which reality had been distorted by the abstract lens of wealth. During periods of so-called economic depression, for example, societies suffered for want of all manner of essential goods, yet investigation almost invariably disclosed that there were plenty of goods available. Plenty of coal in the ground, corn in the fields, wool on the sheep. What was missing was not materials but an abstract unit of measurement called 'money.' It was akin to a starving woman with a sweet tooth lamenting that she couldn't bake a cake because she didn't have any ounces. She had butter, flour, eggs, milk, and sugar, she just didn't have any ounces, any pinches, any pints. The loony legacy of money was that the arithmetic by which things were measured had become more valuable than the things themselves. ↗

— Tom Robbins

#economic-depression #money #recessions #wealth #money

The financial markets are not to be trusted. They expect to be given free reign to make huge profits while the sun is shining, but hasten to the shelter of the state when the skies darken. ↗

— Peter Stalker

#money #money

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

— Terry Pratchett

#humor #money

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

Saying that you are moral because you believe in a god is like saying you are an economist because you play monopoly. ↗

— Robert W. Cox

#economics #god #monopoly #morality #religion