Most Recent Business & Finance Quotes

All human action, so far as it is rational, appears as the exchange of one condition for another. Men apply economic goods and personal time and labour in the direction which, under the given circumstances, promises the highest degree of satisfaction, and they forgo the satisfaction of lesser needs so as to satisfy the more urgent needs. This is the essence of economic activity—the carrying out of acts of exchange.

— Ludwig von Mises

Once the principle is admitted that it is duty of government to protect the individual against his own foolishness, no serious objections can be advanced against further encroachments.

— Ludwig von Mises; Human Action

Government means always coercion and compulsion and is by necessity the opposite of liberty.

— Ludwig von Mises; Human Action

Whoever wants lastingly to establish good government must start by trying to persuade his fellow citizens and offering them sound ideologies. . . . There is no hope left for a civilization when the masses favor harmful policies.

— Ludwig von Mises; Omnipotent Government

It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.

— Murray Rothbard

First, the scope of government must be limited. Its major function must be to protect our freedom both from the enemies outside our gates and from our fellow-citizens: to preserve law and order, to enforce private contracts, to foster competitive markets.

— Milton Friedman; Capitalism and Freedom

The free man will ask neither what his country can do for him nor what he can do for his country. He will ask rather "What can I and my compatriots do through government" to help us discharge our individual responsibilities, to achieve our several goals and purposes, and above all, to protect our freedom? And he will accompany this question with another: How can we keep the government we create from becoming a Frankenstein that will destroy the very freedom we establish it to protect? Freedom is a rare and delicate plant. Our minds tell us, and history confirms, that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power. Government is necessary to preserve our freedom, it is an instrument through which we can exercise our freedom; yet by concentrating power in political hands, it is also a threat to freedom. Even though the men who wield this power initially be of good will and even though they be not corrupted by the power they exercise, the power will both attract and form men of a different stamp.

— Milton Friedman; Capitalism and Freedom

In a much quoted passage in his inaugural address, President Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you -- ask what you can do for your country." It is a striking sign of the temper of our times that the controversy about this passage centered on its origin and not on its content. Neither half of the statement expresses a relation between the citizen and his government that is worthy of the ideals of free men in a free society. The paternalistic "what your country can do for you" implies that government is the patron, the citizen the ward, a view that is at odds with the free man's belief in his own responsibility for his own destiny. The organismic, "what you can do for your country" implies that government is the master or the deity, the citizen, the servant or the votary. To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them. He is proud of a common heritage and loyal to common traditions. But he regards government as a means, an instrumentality, neither a grantor of favors and gifts, nor a master or god to be blindly worshiped and served. He recognizes no national goal except as it is the consensus of the goals that the citizens severally serve. He recognizes no national purpose except as it is the consensus of the purposes for which the citizens severally strive.

— Milton Friedman; Capitalism and Freedom

Nevertheless, the success of capitalism has always bred a certain number of malcontents who, among other things, believe that they are insufficiently rewarded by the capitalist system, are envious of other's success, have a compulsion to use politics to control other people's behavior (and their wealth), deny the reality of human inequalities, believe that personal freedom is overrated, and resent the power that ordinary consumers have over the economy. Many of these anticapitalists are ignorant of basic economics, but that does not stop them from assaulting capitalism at every opportunity.

— Thomas Sowell; How Capitalism Saved America

As these studies clearly convey, capitalism is the best-known source of upward economic mobility. And, despite the oft-repeated claims of anticapitalists, capitalism actually reduces income inequalities within a nation as well. While there will always be inequalities of incomes—this is only natural, for every human being has different aptitudes, priorities, and interests—the economic opportunity in a capitalist economy enables those at the bottom of the economic ladder to ascend to the middle and the top. Over time, income inequalities diminish as more and more people take advantage of job opportunities, work hard, learn skills, educate themselves, save their money, get married and raise families, and start up their own businesses.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

The freedom to engage in international commerce expands the size of markets in a capitalist economy and makes competition more vigorous. This, in turn, generally leads to higher-quality and lower-priced products for consumers.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

Taxation, price controls, regulation in general, and government control of production with government-run enterprises all shrink the private sector as well. When the government causes inflation it makes it difficult for capitalists to make economic calculations. After all, the entrepreneur must assess whether his investment in resources is producing a product or service that consumers value more than the resources themselves—that is, whether his revenues exceed his costs. And inflation complicates this critical calculation, which harms capitalism.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

The overall size of government as a percentage of an economy is important because every dollar that government spends must necessarily come from the private sector. If the government taxes, it takes money out of the pockets of consumers; if it borrows, it crowds out private borrowers (individuals, families, and businesses) and puts upward pressure on interest rates, which makes borrowing more expensive for private borrowers (individuals, families, and businesses) and puts upward pressure on interest rates, which makes borrowing more expensive for private citizens; and if it prints money to finance its programs, it creates inflation, which reduces the value of all privately held wealth. Except for spending to protect property rights, enforce the law, and protect citizens from foreign aggressors, all government spending crowds out private spending and weakens the vitality of capitalism.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

Any discussion of economic freedom must consider degrees of freedom, for neither the United States nor any other nation has ever had an economy that was genuinely free of government interference— that is, free of taxes and regulations. Rut overwhelming evidence indicates that the more economic freedom a nation has, the more economic opportunity there will be and the more vibrant that nation's economy will be. And the opposite is also true: the more regulations, controls, taxes, government-run industries, protectionism, and other forms of interventionism that exist, the poorer a country will be. The strongest evidence comes from several annual ''economic freedom indexes" calculated and published by the Fraser Institute in Canada and by the Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation in the United States. These indexes show a strong; correlation between the degree of economic freedom in a country and economic growth. And in fact the studies show more than just a correlation; they explain why a higher degree of economic freedom (that is, a more capitalistic society) causes more prosperity.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

The important feature of entrepreneurship is not so much the ability to break away from routine as the ability to perceive new opportunities which others have not yet noticed. Entrepreneurship... is not so much the introduction of new products or of new techniques of production as the ability to see where new methods of production have, unknown to others, become feasible.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

Entrepreneurial freedom in general is a prerequesite for capitalistic success. It is entrepreneurs who take risks, invest their money, start up new businesses, create new products, and employ most of the workforce in the United States. Entrepreneurs have created whole new industries by filling market niches that were ignored by other businesses. They have created competition for older, more established businesses, which is always good for the consumer. Entrepreneurs are also the main source of experimentation in the business world, for in trying to find profit opportunities that others have missed they are constantly experimenting with newer products. These products sometimes become revolutionary, as in the case of personal computers, the automobile, and thousands of other products and services.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

Not all entrepreneurs are successful, of course; many lose money and go bankrupt. But this is another strength of free-market capitalism, where the consumer is king. If one capitalist uses his resources in a way that does not please consumers and therefore cuts back on resources or goes out of business, more successful entrepreneurs will take up those resources and use them more efficiently. Indeed, in many cases a company that goes bankrupts is purchased by a more successful competitor in the same industry who knows better how to manage those resources and produce products and services that are more to the liking of consumers. The freedom to fail is an important ingredient of capitalist success.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

Competition never lets entrepreneurs rest on their laurels.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

On the other hand, if a product catches on and more consumers want to buy it, they will bid up the price of the product. That in turn will once again provide the correct incentive to producers: to produce more. More entrepreneurs will enter the business, as long as there are no government-imposed barriers to competition, such as protectionism, monopoly franchises, and onerous licensing regulation -- all things that, as we will see in the next chapter, impede capitalism. The additional production and competition will eventually bring the price back down, perhaps even to a lower level than the original price. The process of competition also tents to improve the quality of the product, benefiting the consumer even more.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

When it comes down to it, what are being traded in a capitalist economy are property rights -- the ownership rights in goods and services. Trade and exchange will be minimal without reasonably secure property rights. And it is these trades and exchanges (supply and demand) that determine free-market prices. Prices in a capitalistic economy reflect the relative scarcity of a good or service as well as the amount and intensity of consumer demand. Free-market prices are the only viable means of a rational economic calculation. If a good or service becomes in shorter supply, for whatever reason, its price will rise, all other things being equal. The higher price will give consumers the proper incentive to do what is needed whenever anything becomes scarcer: conserve, or cut back on consumption. At the same time, the higher price gives producers an incentive to supply more to the market (since it is more profitable to do so), while others are given financial incentives to create and market substitutes for the higher-priced item.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

It is no coincidence, then, that capitalism grew from the fifteenth century onward after the creation of commercial law and commercial law courts designed to enforce and protect property rights.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

Because government in poorer countries has failed to enforce property rights, the people of these countries lack the ability, on any large scale, to create capital and become entrepreneurs. And without capital there can be no capitalism.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

Coca-Cola, for example, uses considerably less aluminum in its cans than it did several decades ago. Coca-Cola did this not because it became more environmentally sensitive but because it wanted to increase its profits.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

One of the more famous demonstrations of the complexities of an economic system came in an essay about what goes into making a seemingly simple product: a pencil. In “I, Pencil,” Leonard Read, the founder of the Foundation of Economic Education in Irvington, New York, discussed the many materials necessary to produce a pencil: wood, metal, zinc, rubber, paint, and dozens of other things. But that is just the beginning, for there is an entire industry to produce each of those materials—a lumber industry to get the wood, a mining industry to get the zinc, and so on. Moreover, engineering and tool-making businesses are required to supply all of those industries. Finally, neither the pencils themselves nor the various elements needed to manufacture pencils could be transported without the oil and shipping industries.

All told, making the most simple of objects, a pencil, involves thousands of people who possess very detailed knowledge and information about their day-to-day jobs, whether they are in the lumber industry, the rubber industry, or elsewhere. And these people come from all over the world. No central planner or “pencil czar”—even with access to the most powerful computer imaginable—could possibly possess and utilize all the detailed and constantly changing information that goes into making pencils. And yet we still have our pencils. How? Because of private property and the free-market capitalism it enables. Under a free-market system, all of these thousands of people, very few of whom actually know each other, have an economic incentive to cooperate with each other under a division of labor and produce pencils. There’s no magic or invisible hand involved. It is the common sense of everyday life under capitalism. As long as there is a consumer demand for pencils—and thus the potential for profit—people will cooperate with others to figure out a way to produce and market pencils. Consumers get the pencils they want, and the people who produce them improve the standard of living for themselves and their families. Property rights and the capitalist system make all of this possible.

The more complex an economy becomes, the more essential it is to rely on free-market capitalism. Indeed, Leonard Read’s pencil example emphasizes just how misguided government planning of the economy is: no group of experts could possibly possess the knowledge required to produce a simple pencil, let alone “plan” an entire economy. The delusion that a single person or group of government planners could possibly possess such information and manage an entire economy is what Nobel laureate economist Friedrich Hayek called the “pretense of knowledge” or the “fatal conceit.”Central planning inevitably leads to economic chaos.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

And because they create the ability to profit from one's own productive endeavors, property rights are the keystone of modern capitalism and of civilization itself. (That’s why Marx and Engels wrote in big capital letters in The Communist Manifesto that a prerequisite for socialism was abolition of private property.)

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

Private property also provides powerful incentives for wise stewardship of property. Property owners who do not take good care of their property bear the full cost of their actions when their property—that is, their wealth—depreciates in value. The opposite is also true: those who take care of and improve their property reap the rewards when their property value goes up. This is why private homes are so much better maintained than government housing projects, for example, or why private lakes and streams are carefully maintained while government-owned ones are often overfished and overused, or why private forests that are harvested are often replanted with trees that mature in twenty-five years while public forests are not.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

[...] people are free to choose their occupations, but subject to the demands of consumers.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

Modern governments actually spend relatively little on programs and systems that benefit all citizens, such as national defense or the judicial system; mainly they are concerned with infringing on the property rights of one (less politically powerful) group of citizens for the benefit of another (more politically powerful) group.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

Private ownership of the means of production is the only way to ensure a workable system of human cooperation and division of labor.

— Thomas DiLorenzo; How Capitalism Saved America

Neither the entrepreneurs nor the farmers nor the capitalists determine what has to be produced. The consumers do that. If a businessman does not strictly obey the orders of the public as they are conveyed to him by the structure of market prices, he suffers losses, he goes bankrupt. . . . Other men who did better in satisfying the demand of the consumers replace him. . . . The consumers . . . make poor people rich and rich people poor. They determine precisely what should be produced, in what quality, and in what qualities. They are merciless egoistic bosses, full of whims and fancies, changeable and unpredictable. . . . They do not care a whit for past merit and vested interests. . . . In their capacities as buyers and consumers they are hard hearted and callous, without consideration for other people.

— Ludwig von Mises; quoted by Thomas DiLorenzo