"Economic Facts and Fallacies" Quotes
A thought-provoking exploration of common economic misconceptions and fallacies that challenges prevailing myths and offers a fresh perspective on economic issues.
economics | 262 pages | Published in 2007
Quotes
The most basic fallacy in economic thinking is to confuse effects with causes.
It is amazing how many people think that government exists to solve all their problems.
The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.
The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.
The fact that the market is not doing what we wish it would do is no reason to automatically assume that the government would do better.
It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.
Subsidizing the markers of status doesn't change the underlying reality that most differences in income and wealth have a similar origin in human capital differences.
The welfare state is the oldest con game in the world. First you take people's money away quietly, and then you give some of it back to them flamboyantly.
Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.
The vision of the left is not just a vision of the world. For many, it is also a vision of themselves—a very flattering vision of people trying to save the planet, rescue the exploited, create 'social justice' and otherwise be on the side of the angels.
