Basic Economics Quotes

“How an incredibly complex, high-tech economy manages to function is a question that puzzles many. The last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, is said to have asked British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher the following: "How do you manage to get people to have food?" He replied that she did not have to do anything, because the prices took care of that. The British people were better fed than the Soviet Union, despite the fact that the British had not produced enough food to survive for more than a century. The prices brought them food from other countries.”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

“When India and China - historically two of the poorest nations in the world - began to make fundamental changes in their economic policies in the late 20th century, their economies began to grow dramatically. It is estimated that about 20 million people in India emerged from homelessness in the course of a decade. In China, the number of people living on a dollar or less a day fell from 374 million in 1990, a third of the country's total population, to 128 million, in 2004, which is equivalent to just 10 percent of a population in China. increase. In other words, nearly 250 million Chinese began to live better as a result of a change in economic policy.”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

“In 21st century China, seven times more energy is used than is used in Japan to produce products of the same value. In this case, the gigantic differences in efficiency have also meant gigantic differences in the standard of living of millions of human beings.”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

“While capitalism has a visible cost - profit - that does not exist under socialism, socialism has an invisible cost - inefficiency - that is eradicated under capitalism through losses and bankruptcy.”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

“One of the incidental benefits of price sharing and competition is that people don't tend to see themselves as rivals, nor do they develop the kind of hostility that rivalry can bring. For example, much of the labor force and building materials needed to build a Protestant church can be used to build a Catholic church. But if a Protestant congregation is collecting money to build their church, the concern will be how much money they can raise and how much they will need to build the kind of church they want. Construction prices may force them to forego some of their more elaborate plans in order to stay within the limits of what they can afford. But they are unlikely to blame Catholics, even though the competition with them for the same building materials drives prices higher. If, on the contrary, the government built churches and distributed them among the different religious groups, Protestants and Catholics, they would be rivals and neither of them would have any financial incentive to cut their construction plans for the benefit of the other. Instead, each would have an incentive to justify, in the strongest possible way and in favor of their needs, the mobilization of their followers in the political arena, to insist on receiving what they want and to oppose any intention to reduce their plans. . The scarcity of materials and labor would still limit what can be built, but that limit would be imposed politically and seen by both groups as a result of their rivalry.”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

“A turning point in Yeltsin's intellectual growth occurred during his first visit to the United States in September 1989; more specifically his first visit to a supermarket in Houston, Texas. Seeing aisles and aisles of shelves filled with all kinds of food and household items, each in dozens of varieties, was both dazzled and depressed. For Yeltsin, as well as many other Russians visiting the United States for the first time, a supermarket was far more impressive than tourist attractions like the Statue of Liberty or the Lincoln Memorial. It was impressive precisely because of its normality. A cornucopia of consumer goods beyond the imagination of most Soviets was available to ordinary citizens without the need to queue for hours. And everything was displayed very attractively. For someone who grew up in the frugal conditions of communism, even a member of the relatively privileged elite, visiting a supermarket in the West was a complete assault on the senses.”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

“Treating the cause of high prices and interest rates in low-income neighborhoods as the product of personal greed or exploitation, and attempting to remedy the problem through the imposition of price controls and interest rate caps. , it only ensures that people living in low-income neighborhoods have even less chance of accessing these services in the future. Just as rent control reduces the supply of housing, price and interest rate control can reduce the number of stores, pawn shops, local finance companies, and check-paying agencies willing to operate in costly neighborhoods. higher, when those costs cannot be recovered through legally permitted prices and interest rates. The only alternative for many residents of low-income neighborhoods may end up being to exit the legal market of financial institutions and ask for money from usurious lenders, who set even higher interest rates and have their own collection methods.”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

“Economists who looked at the real consequences of a centrally planned economy came to a very different conclusion: that" there are too many economic relationships, and it is impossible to take them all into account and carefully coordinate them.”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

“Between 1978 and 1995, China had a spectacular growth rate of 9 percent per annum as a result of the price liberalization that followed Mao's death in 1976. This is in contrast to the serious economic problems that China had due to the strong government control measures promoted by that communist leader.”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

“Throughout history, many seemingly humanitarian policies have backfired due to an inability to understand the role of prices. Attempts to keep food prices low through the imposition of controls have led to famine, both in 17th century Italy and 18th century India, as well as in several African countries after their independence during the 1960s. Some of these African countries, as well as others in Eastern Europe, had such an abundance of food in the past that they were even food exporters before the era of price control and government planning arrived and made them incapable of feeding themselves. to themselves.”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

“No one likes to admit being mistaken but, under the incentives and constraints of profit and loss, there is often no choice but to reverse course before financial losses threaten bankruptcy. In politics, however, the costs of the government’s mistakes are often paid by the taxpayers, while the costs of admitting mistakes are paid by elected officials.”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy

“The prevention of competition is essential to exploitation.”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

“When wheat prices soar, for example, nothing is easier for a demagogue than to cry out against the injustice of a situation where speculators, sitting comfortably in their air-conditioned offices, grow rich on the sweat of farmers toiling in the fields for months under a hot sun. The years when the speculators took a financial beating at harvest time, while the farmers lived comfortably on the guaranteed wheat prices paid by speculators, are of course forgotten.”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy

“Cuando la libre competencia en el mercado es reemplazada por la intervención de un tercero que obliga a las empresas a facilitar las cosas a sus competidores, cuesta ver cómo esto puede ayudar a la competencia, y no simplemente a los competidores”
― Thomas Sowell, Economía básica: Un manual de economía escrito desde el sentido común

“En resumen, una política cuyo intención es conseguir que las viviendas sean más asequibles para los pobres, ha tenido como consecuencia que los recursos se redirijan a la construcción de viviendas que sólo son asequibles para los ricos o adinerados, ya que, por lo general, las viviendas lujosas no están sujetas al control de alquileres, al igual que tampoco lo están los edificios de oficinas y otras propiedades comerciales. Esto ilustra, entre otras cosas, la crucial importancia de hacer una distinción entre intenciones y consecuencias”
― Thomas Sowell, Economía básica: Un manual de economía escrito desde el sentido común

“redistribute wealth in a manner that may be considered objectionable. What adversely affects the total wealth in the economy as a whole is the effect of a monopoly on the allocation of scarce resources which have alternative uses.”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy

“Many people object to the fact that a monopolist can charge higher prices than a competitive business could. But the ability to transfer money from other members of the society to itself is not the sole harm done by a monopoly. From the standpoint of the economy as a whole, these internal transfers do not change the total wealth of the society, even though such transfers”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy

“George J. Stigler put it: A large number of successful businessmen have gone on to high administrative posts in the national government, and many—I think most—have been less than distinguished successes in that new environment. They are surrounded and overpowered by informed and entrenched subordinates, they must deal with legislators who can be”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy

“Economics is not simply a topic on which to express opinions or vent emotions. It is a systematic study of cause and effect, showing what happens when you do specific things in specific ways. In economic analysis, the methods used by a Marxist economist like Oskar Lange did not differ in any fundamental way from the methods used by a conservative economist like Milton Friedman.{6} It”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy

“Risk-taking is the mother's milk of capitalism. The Wall Street Journal”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

“En retrospectiva, todos somos unos genios, pero el riesgo siempre implica mirar hacia el futuro, no hacia el pasado.”
― Thomas Sowell, Economía básica: Un manual de economía escrito desde el sentido común

“La asunción de riesgos es la leche materna del capitalismo. The Wall Street Journal”
― Thomas Sowell, Economía básica: Un manual de economía escrito desde el sentido común

“los controles de precios y la asignación directa de recursos por parte de instituciones políticas requieren mucho más conocimiento explícito por parte de un pequeño número de planificadores de lo que requiere una economía de mercado para que pueda ser coordinada por precios a los que responden millones de personas según el conocimiento de primera mano de sus propias circunstancias y preferencias, y los relativamente pocos precios que cada individuo debe manejar.”
― Thomas Sowell, Economía básica: Un manual de economía escrito desde el sentido común

“Una de las grandes diferencias entre la economía y la política es que los políticos no se ven obligados a prestar atención a las consecuencias que vendrán después de las próximas elecciones. Un funcionario electo, cuyas políticas mantienen feliz al electorado hasta el día de las elecciones, tiene buenas posibilidades de ser reelegido, incluso si esas políticas tienen consecuencias desastrosas en años venideros. No existe un «valor actual» para hacer que los que toman las decisiones políticas hoy tengan en cuenta las consecuencias futuras, cuando aquellas consecuencias vendrán tras las elecciones.”
― Thomas Sowell, Economía básica: Un manual de economía escrito desde el sentido común

“Dado que las elecciones democráticas se realizan siempre a corto plazo, los políticos tienen todos los incentivos para extraer tanta riqueza como les sea posible del capital fijo bajo su jurisdicción, ya sea a través de impuestos, de la imposición de cargas sobre la propiedad o de la expropiación. Solamente la conciencia del público sobre las consecuencias a largo plazo puede limitar esta forma de explotación.”
― Thomas Sowell, Economía básica: Un manual de economía escrito desde el sentido común

“Debido a que la inmovilidad es la clave de la explotación, el capital fijo, al igual que el trabajo, puede ser explotado también a corto plazo. Y, dado que algunos bienes de capital pueden durar más que el período de vida promedio de un trabajador, una vez una central hidroeléctrica ha sido construida, tanto los impuestos locales como los sindicatos locales pueden absorber gran parte de sus ganancias, al punto de hacer muy difícil que alguien jamás esté dispuesto a construir otra central hidroeléctrica en esa jurisdicción.”
― Thomas Sowell, Economía básica: Un manual de economía escrito desde el sentido común

“La oferta y la demanda dicen que los precios por encima del mercado crean excedentes invendibles, pero esto no ha evitado que Europa haya insistido durante décadas en la regulación de los mercados de trabajo, lo que ha llevado a un desempleo propio de los tiempos de la depresión. BRYAN CAPLAN”
― Thomas Sowell, Economía básica: Un manual de economía escrito desde el sentido común

“El hecho de que el trabajo sea más barato en Dubái que en Japón no es simplemente una casualidad. El trabajo es más productivo en los países más ricos. Ésa es una de las razones por las que estos países son más prósperos en general. La venta de equipamiento usado de países ricos a países pobres puede ser una manera eficiente de manejar la situación para ambos tipos de países.”
― Thomas Sowell, Economía básica: Un manual de economía escrito desde el sentido común

“El capital tiende a ser más escaso y por lo tanto más caro en países pobres, mientras que el trabajo tiende a ser más abundante y por tanto más barato. Los países pobres tienden a economizar en el factor más caro, de la misma manera que los países ricos economizan en un factor diferente que es más caro y escaso allí, a saber, el trabajo. En los países ricos, es el capital el que es más abundante y barato, mientras que el trabajo es más escaso y caro.”
― Thomas Sowell, Economía básica: Un manual de economía escrito desde el sentido común

“Mientras todo requiere trabajo para ser producido, prácticamente nada puede ser producido sólo con trabajo. Los agricultores necesitan tierra; los taxistas, coches; los artistas, algo donde pintar y algo con qué pintar. Incluso un comediante necesita un inventario de chistes, su capital, así como las presas hidroeléctricas son el capital de las empresas que generan electricidad. El capital complementa a los trabajadores en el proceso de producción, pero también compite con ellos por los empleos. En otras palabras, muchos bienes y servicios pueden ser producidos ya sea con mucho trabajo y poco capital”
― Thomas Sowell, Economía básica: Un manual de economía escrito desde el sentido común