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Quotes about economics

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The issue is Socialism versus Capitalism. I am for Socialism because I am for humanity. We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough.
Eugene V. Debs1855–1926Open letter to the American Railway Union, Chicago Railway Times (1 January 1897)
- Politics
Chicago is the product of modern capitalism, and, like all other great commercial centers, is unfit for human habitation.
Eugene V. Debs1855–1926What’s the matter with Chicago? (1902)
- Clever Jabs
Free enterprise cannot be justified as being good for business. It can be justified only as being good for society.
Peter Drucker1909–2005The Practice of Management (1954), p. 41
- Business
Capitalism works not through coercion or conquest, but through the consent of the consumer.
Dinesh D'Souzaborn 1961America: Imagine the World Without Her (2014)
- Business
The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of the evil.
Albert Einstein1879–1955Why Socialism? (1949)
Solvency is maintained by means of the national debt, on the principle, “If you will not lend me the money, how can I pay you?”
Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882English Traits (1856), Ability
The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers.
Pope Francis1936–2025Said during a gathering of Latin American bishops, as quoted in ‘Option for the Poor’ alive and well in Latin America, National Catholic Reporter (21 May 2007)
- Justice
Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.
Milton Friedman1912–2006Capitalism and Freedom (1962), Ch. 1 The Relation Between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom, 2002 edition, page 15
- Business
- Freedom
The basic problem of social organization is how to co-ordinate the economic activities of large numbers of people.
Milton Friedman1912–2006Capitalism and Freedom (1962), Ch. 1 The Relation Between Economic Freedom and Political Freedom, p. 12
If you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel. That’s literally true.
Milton Friedman1912–2006America’s Drug Forum interview (1991)
- Government
Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon in the sense that it is and can be produced only by a more rapid increase in the quantity of money than in output.
Milton Friedman1912–2006The Counter-Revolution in Monetary Theory (1970)
- Money
Most economic fallacies derive from the neglect of this simple insight, from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another.
Milton Friedman1912–2006Free to Choose (1980), Ch. 1 “The Power of the Market”, p. 13
Our society is run by a managerial bureaucracy, by professional politicians; people are motivated by mass suggestion, their aim is producing more and consuming more, as purposes in themselves.
Erich Fromm1900–1980The Art of Loving (1956)
- Politics
Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay;
Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade;
A breath can make them, as a breath has made:
But a bold peasantry, their country’s pride,
When once destroyed, can never be supplied.
Oliver Goldsmith1728–1774The Deserted Village (1770), The Deserted VillageIn context
- Money
What is a debt, anyway? A debt is just the perversion of a promise. It is a promise corrupted by both math and violence.
David Graeber1961–2020Debt: The First 5,000 Years (2011), Chapter Twelve, “1971–The Beginning…”, p. 391
- Money