All economic transactions involve mutual accommodation and each transactor has to make the deal a net benefit to the other transactor, in order to have a deal at all.
Competition does a much more effective job than government at protecting consumers.
Different kinds of economies are essentially different ways of making decisions about the allocation of scarce resources--and those decisions have repercussions on the life of the whole society.
Economic policies need to be analyzed in terms of the incentives they create, rather than the hopes that inspired them.
Economic policies need to be analyzed in terms of the incentives they create, rather than the hopes that inspired them.
Economic transactions are not a zero-sum process, where one person loses whatever the other person gains.
Facts do not 'speak for themselves.' They speak for or against competing theories. Facts divorced from theory or visions are mere isolated curiosities.
For generations, it was a paradox that the Chinese and the Indians prospered almost everywhere around the world, except in China and India.
From an economic standpoint, some education has great value, some has no value and some can even have a negative value.
I have never understood why it is 'greed' to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.
If the battle for civilization comes down to the wimps versus the barbarians, the barbarians are going to win.
If the goods and services available...are greater as a result of international trade, then Americans are wealthier, not poorer, regardless of whether there is a [trade] ‘deficit’ or a ‘surplus.’
If you don't believe in the innate unreasonableness of human beings, just try raising children.
In a free market, the money of ordinary people is just as good as the money of the rich—and in the aggregate, there is often more of it.
International trade is not a zero-sum contest. Both sides must gain or it would make no sense to continue trading.
It is not money but the volume of goods and services which determines whether a country is poverty stricken or prosperous.
Many economic fallacies are due to conceiving of economic activity as a zero-sum contest, in which what is gained by one is lost by another.
Maturity is not a matter of age. You have matured when you are no longer concerned with showing how clever you are, and give your full attention to getting the job done right. Many never reach that stage, no matter how old they get.
Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.
Nothing could be more jolting and discordant with the vision of today's intellectuals than the fact that it was businessmen, devout religious leaders, and Western imperialists who together destroyed slavery around the world.
Nothing is easier than to have good intentions but, without an understanding of how an economy works, good intentions can lead to counterproductive, or even disastrous, consequences for a whole nation.
One of the grand fallacies of our time is that something beneficial should be subsidized.
One of the most ridiculous defenses of foreign aid is that it is a very small part of our national income. If the average American set fire to a five-dollar bill, it would be an even smaller percentage of his annual income. But everyone would consider him foolish for doing it.
One of the pressures on governments...is to ‘do something’--even when there is nothing they can do that is likely to make things better and much that they can do that will risk making things worse.
People who talk incessantly about 'change' are often dogmatically set in their ways. They want to change other people.
Politics allows people to vote for the impossible, which may be one reason why politicians are often more popular than economists…
Property rights create self-monitoring, which tends to be both more effective and less costly than third-party monitoring.
Regardless of our policies, practices, or institutions--whether they are wise or unwise, noble or ignoble--there is simply not enough to go around to satisfy all our desires to the fullest.
Some of the biggest cases of mistaken identity are among intellectuals who have trouble remembering that they are not God.
The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy.
The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.
The key feature of Communist propaganda has been the depiction of people who are more productive as mere exploiters of others.
The Soviet Union did not lack for resources…. What it lacked was an economic system that made efficient use of its resources.
There are always values that some people think worthy enough that other people should have to pay for them—but not worthy enough that they should have to pay for them themselves.
There are only two good things about growing old—it improves nearsighted vision and it's better than the alternative.
There are only two kinds of air-conditioning on planes—off and freezing.
There are only two kinds of economists—those who predict the future and those who don't have the gall.
There are only two kinds of foreign countries--those that require shots and those that don’t.
There are only two kinds of government programs—those that are ineffective and those that are counterproductive.
There are only two kinds of people who go into bankruptcy—those who don't know how to handle money and those who know all too well.
There are only two kinds of people—those who think there are two kinds of people and those who don’t
There are only two kinds of places to live—California and everywhere else.
There are only two kinds of politicians—those who have stopped lying and those who are still alive.
There are only two kinds of schools—those that keep up with the latest educational trends and those that teach
There are only two obstacles to responsible legislation—the Senate and the House of Representatives.
There are only two ways of telling the complete truth—anonymously and posthumously.
Throughout the history of anti-trust prosecutions, there has been an unresolved confusion between what is detrimental to competition and what is detrimental to competitors.
Unfortunately, the real minimum wage is always zero, regardless of the laws….
Virtually no idea is too ridiculous to be accepted, even by very intelligent and highly educated people, if it provides a way for them to feel special and important. Some confuse that feeling with idealism.
When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.
Without scarcity, there is no need to economize--and therefore no economics.
[Investment] is the sacrificing of real things today in order to have more real things in the future.
‘Unmet needs’ are inherent...whether we have a capitalist, socialist, feudal, or other kind of economy. These [systems] are just different institutional ways of making trade-offs.…