Comparative Advantage Quotes

• Every great political campaign rewrites the rules; devising a new way to win is what gives campaigns a comparative advantage against their foes.

  John Podhoretz

  Winning, Giving, Political

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• Thousands of important and intelligent men have never been able to grasp the principle of comparative advantage or believe it even after it was explained to them

  Paul Samuelson

  Believe, Intelligent, Men

  8 Copy quote

• In the quest for comparative advantage, investment will flow towards those countries that can offer more output for fewer emissions. Inaction will cost jobs. Action will support jobs.

  Julia Gillard

  Country, Jobs, Support

  10 Copy quote

• To be strategic is to concentrate on what is important, on those few objectives that can give us a comparative advantage, on what is important to us rather than others, and to plan and execute the resulting plan with determination and steadfastness.

  Richard Koch

  Determination, Giving, Important

  21 Copy quote

• It is here we come to the heart of the matter. The economic principle of comparative advantage', 'a country may, in return for manufactured commodities, import corn even if it can be grown with less labour than in the country from which it is imported

  David Ricardo

  Country, Heart, Principles

  105 Copy quote

• In a world where technology and capital are highly transferable, there is a real risk that comparative advantage comes to be defined as whose labor force will work for the lowest wage.

  Robert Kuttner

  Real, Technology, Labor Force

  Robert Kuttner (1987). “The Economic Illusion: False Choices Between Prosperity and Social Justice”, p.102, University of Pennsylvania Press

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• Litmus test: If you can't describe Ricardo's Law of Comparative Advantage and explain why people find it counterintuitive, you don't know enough about economics to direct any criticism or praise at "capitalism" because you don't know what other people are referring to when they use that word.

  Eliezer Yudkowsky

  Law, People, Criticism

  Comment as Eliezer Yudkowsky @yudkowsky, www.facebook.com. June 10, 2012.

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• In many societies the domestic social costs of adjustment to changing patterns of comparative advantage are believed to outweigh the advantages of further trade liberalization.

  Robert Gilpin

  Cost, Patterns, Social

  Robert Gilpin (2016). “The Political Economy of International Relations”, p.228, Princeton University Press

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• United States has comparative advantage in military force. It tends to react to anything at first with military force, that's what it's good at. And I think they overdid it. There was more military force than was necessary.

  Noam Chomsky

  Military, Thinking, United States

  "Chomsky on Haiti". Interview with Keane Bhatt, www.counterpunch.org. March 9, 2010.

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• We need to move from comparative advantage to perpetual advantage.

  Max McKeown

  Moving, Needs, Advantage

  4 Copy quote

• A system that rewards politicians skilled at campaigning - which is the art of creating an illusion - and that puts hundreds of billions of coerced taxpayer dollars at the disposal of the winners will tend to attract men and women with a comparative advantage in manipulation.

  John Stossel

  Art, Men, Creating

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• Temporary nationalization of the banks that are in very bad shape would mean basically that the government is the temporary owner. I always believe that the government should focus on its comparative advantages, and banking is not one of them. It should, therefore, if it nationalizes banks, sell them back to the private sector.

  Joseph Stiglitz

  Believe, Mean, Government

  Interview with Amitabh Pal, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. May 27, 2011.

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• The ability to work with systems of general equilibrium is perhaps one of the most important skills of the economist - a skill which he shares with many other scientists, but in which he has perhaps a certain comparative advantage.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Skills, Important, Scientist

  "The Skills of the Economist". Book by Kenneth Ewart Boulding, p. 15, 1958.

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• The fact that global savers accommodate U.S. consumers by keeping U.S. interest rates lower than they otherwise would be and the dollar stronger than it otherwise would be is simply a manifestation of America's comparative advantage at supplying wealth storage facilities.

  John H. Makin

  America, Balance, Stronger

  4 Copy quote