Thomas Sowell Quotes About Economics

Quotes about: Economics

• No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems - of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind.

  Thomas Sowell

  Two, Numbers, Political

  Thomas Sowell (2011). “Dismantling America and Other Controversial Essays (Large Print 16pt)”, p.88, ReadHowYouWant.com

• If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else's expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves

  Thomas Sowell

  Giving, Voting, Promise

• 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.

  Thomas Sowell

  Scarcity, Lessons, Politics

  Thomas Sowell (1993). “Is Reality Optional?: And Other Essays”, Hoover Inst Press

• Capitalism is not an 'ism.' It is closer to being the opposite of an 'ism,' because it is simply the freedom of ordinary people to make whatever economic transactions they can mutually agree to.

  Thomas Sowell

  Opposites, People, Liberty

• Economics is concerned with what emerges, not what anyone intended.

  Thomas Sowell

  Economics, Concerned

  Thomas Sowell (2010). “Basic Economics 4th Ed: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy”, p.68, Basic Books

• 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.

  Thomas Sowell

  Games, People, Giving

• We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did.

  Thomas Sowell

  Liberty, Economic, Responsible

  Thomas Sowell (2013). “Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays”, p.332, Hoover Press

• The vocabulary of the political left is fascinating. For example, it is considered to be 'materialistic' and 'greedy' to want to keep what you have earned. But it is 'idealistic' to want to take away what someone else has earned and spend it for your own political benefit or to feel good about yourself.

  Thomas Sowell

  Money, Vocabulary, Political

• You can only confiscate the wealth that exists at a given moment. You cannot confiscate future wealth - and that future wealth is less likely to be produced when people see that it is going to be confiscated.

  Thomas Sowell

  Philosophy, People, Political

• The question is not what anybody deserves. The question is who is to take on the God-like role of deciding what everybody else deserves. You can talk about 'social justice' all you want. But what death taxes boil down to is letting politicians take money from widows and orphans to pay for goodies that they will hand out to others, in order to buy votes to get re-elected. That is not social justice or any other kind of justice.

  Thomas Sowell

  Hands, Order, Deserve You

  Thomas Sowell (2013). “Controversial Essays”, p.59, Hoover Press

• If politicians were serious about day care for children, instead of just sloganizing about it, nothing they could do would improve the quality of child care more than by lifting the heavy burden of taxation that forces so many families to have both parents working.

  Thomas Sowell

  Children, Day Care, Parent

  Thomas Sowell (2013). “Controversial Essays”, p.319, Hoover Press

• Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on "income distribution," the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: It is earned.

  Thomas Sowell

  Philosophy, Political, Income Distribution

• People who are very aware that they have more knowledge than the average person are often very unaware that they do not have one-tenth of the knowledge of all of the average persons put together. In this situation, for the intelligentsia to impose their notions on ordinary people is essentially to impose ignorance on knowledge.

  Thomas Sowell

  Ignorance, Average, People

• Four things have almost invariably followed the imposition of controls to keep prices below the level they would reach under supply and demand in a free market: (1) increased use of the product or service whose price is controlled, (2) Reduced supply of the same product or service, (3) quality deterioration, (4) black markets.

  Thomas Sowell

  Black, Quality, Deterioration

• Most intellectuals outside the field of economics show remarkably little interest in learning even the basic fundamentals of economics. Yet they do not hesitate to make sweeping pronouncements about the economy in general, businesses in particular, and the many issues revolving around what is called 'income distribution'.

  Thomas Sowell

  Issues, Income Distribution, Fundamentals

• The first rule of economics is that there is an infinite number of desires chasing a finite number of goods, services and resources. The first rule of politics is to ignore the first rule of economics.

  Thomas Sowell

  Finite Number, Numbers, Desire

• Just as a poetic discussion of the weather is not meteorology, so an issuance of moral pronouncements or political creeds about the economy is not economics. Economics is a study of cause-and-effect relationships in an economy.

  Thomas Sowell

  Weather, Political, Meteorology

  Thomas Sowell (2011). “Basic Economics”, p.103, ReadHowYouWant.com

• All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting 'the rich' to pay 'their fair share' is part of a big charade. This is not about economics, it is about politics.

  Thomas Sowell

  Political, Pay, Moral

• At least half of the popular fallacies about economics come from assuming that economic activity is a zero-sum game, in which what is gained by someone is lost by someone else. But transactions would not continue unless both sides gained, whether in international trade, employment, or renting an apartment.

  Thomas Sowell

  Zero, Games, Employment

  "Random Thoughts" by Thomas Sowell, www.realclearpolitics.com. June 13, 2006.

• Economics is a study of cause-and-effect relationships in an economy. It's purpose is to discern the consequences of various ways of allocating resources which have alternative uses. It has nothing to say about philosophy or values, anymore than it has to say about music or literature.

  Thomas Sowell

  Philosophy, Causes, Alternatives

  Thomas Sowell (2000). “Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy”, Basic Civitas Books

• Why the transfer of decisions from those with personal experience and a stake in the outcome to those with neither can be expected to lead to better decisions is a question seldom asked, much less answered.

  Thomas Sowell

  Decision, Liberty, Outcomes

• Any politician who starts shouting election-year demagoguery about the rich and the poor should be asked, "What about the other 90 percent of the people?"

  Thomas Sowell

  Years, People, Liberty

• Asking liberals where wages and prices come from is like asking six-year-olds where babies come from.

  Thomas Sowell

  Baby, Years, Liberty

• The dominant orthodoxy in development economics was that Third World countries were trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty that could be broken only by massive foreign aid from the more prosperous industrial nations of the world. This was in keeping with a more general vision on the Left that people were essentially divided into three categories - the heartless, the helpless, and wonderful people like themselves, who would rescue the helpless by playing Lady Bountiful with the taxpayers' money.

  Thomas Sowell

  Country, Heart, Broken

  Thomas Sowell (2013). “Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays”, p.72, Hoover Press

• People who know nothing about advertising, nothing about pharmaceuticals, and nothing about economics have been loudly proclaiming that the drug companies spend too much on advertising - and demanding that the government pass laws based on their ignorance.

  Thomas Sowell

  Ignorance, Government, Law

  Thomas Sowell (2013). “Ever Wonder Why?: and Other Controversial Essays”, p.204, Hoover Press

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