Economic Policy Quotes

“Our listeners asked us:
"What is chaos?"
We're answering:
"We do not comment on economic policy.”
― John Vaillant, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival

“It (balancing the budget) is like protecting your virtue, you have to learn to say no!”
― Ronald Reagan

“The "Push to Perfection Mechanism" is a vital component of a Permacapital Economy. In this type of economy, there is a strong emphasis on timely and voluntary exchange of services and payments between employees, suppliers, and customers. All parties involved expect accountability from businesses, although their expectations differ.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“Productivity is a crucial economic driver in both capitalism and Permacapital Economics. However, the frameworks differ in their approach to its purpose and the ethical and social considerations that surround its pursuit. Capitalism often prioritizes productivity as a means to maximize profit and economic growth, while Permacapital Economics seeks to harness productivity for sustainable value creation and equitable distribution within ecological limits.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“A core element of Permacapital Economics is the voluntary exchange of products and services between people, businesses and governments. Each economic participant is free to choose who they will buy from and sell to. There is no force, collusion, or coercion determining the exchange of products or services.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“A core element of Permacapital Economics Is the price mechanism. Whereby, individual economic participants determine the prices of the products and services they sell and buy, according to supply and demand. Supply and demand is based on individual choices. Supply and demand determines the production of and prices of products and services.

Prices naturally strive for equilibrium, as if being led by an invisible hand. Because buyers will always have a highest price point beyond which they are unwilling to pay for a given product or service, thereby making it unprofitable for sellers to attempt to sell those products or services beyond that price point. Similarly, sellers have a lowest price point beyond which they are unwilling or unable to sell a given product or service. This generally eliminates the existence of products or services which provide no net gain to society. The price system is the most efficient mechanism for ensuring that the needs and desires of buyers and sellers are adequately met among people in society, and that members of society at large has access to the highest quality and quantity of products and services.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“In a Permacapital Economy, the patterns of production, the uses of private property, the delegation of resources, the regulation of industry/commerce, and the movement of prices are all based largely on the desires and demands of the consumers, within the reasonable limits of regulation.

Too much consumer sovereignty will result in the pursuit of low prices and convenience Being at the expense of good wages, harmony with nature, social cohesion, etc.

Too little consumer sovereignty will result in the dominance of government and industry to the extent that the freedoms (liberties) of the people are infringed upon and the efficiency of the whole economy is reduced.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“Because Permacapital Economics prioritizes profit for each individual, it therefore respects the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness of each individual.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“Permacapital Economics, as a framework, places a high value on ensuring that each individual has the opportunity to earn a profit or achieve economic success. In doing so, it acknowledges the fundamental principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“It is a matter of efficiency, practicality and productivity that labor as a whole be divided into specialty jobs that come together to produce greater value than could be produced without such division. Businesses will tend to create new jobs which serve a special function. Therefore, workers will be incentivized to skill themselves such that they may be employed in certain functional roles according to their availability in the marketplace. This phenomena contributes to efficiency at scale, in the economy. Any law or policy or cultural trend which inhibits the division of labor will consequently inhibit efficiency in the economy.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“In a Permacapital Economy, businesses are born and businesses die. When businesses are providing value to customers and society, and doing so with fair prices, better than their competitors - they remain alive. When businesses are unable or unwilling to provide value to customers and society and are overpriced and worse than competitors - they die. The process is determined by what is best for society, naturally, by the various mechanisms at play in the Permacapital Economy.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“In a Permacapital Economy, the life and death of businesses are natural and essential components of the market’s self-regulating mechanism.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“When a man wants to rob a bank he hides behind a mask, but when a banker wants to rob a man, he hides behind a corporation.”
― V.O. Diedlaff, We Can Fix It: Reclaiming the American Dream

“The notion that elections cannot be allowed to change economic policy, indeed any policy, is a gift to [founder and leader of Singapore] Lee Kuan Yew supporters or indeed the Chinese communist party, who also believe this to be true. There is of course a long tradition of doubting the efficacy of the democratic process. But I would like to think that his tradition has been expelled long ago from the heart of Europe. It now seems that the euro crisis has brought it back. I urge you all to band together in a collective bid to resist it. Democracy is not a luxury to be afforded to the creditors and denied to the debtors. Indeed, it is the lack of democratic process in the heart of our monetary union that is perpetuating the euro crisis. Then again, I might be wrong. Colleagues, if you think that I am wrong, if you agree with Wolfgang, then I invite you to say so explicitly by proposing that elections should be suspended in countries like Greece until the country's programme is completed. What is the point of spending money on elections and asking our people to get all fired up to elect governments that will have no capacity to change anything?”
― Yanis Varoufakis, Adults in the Room: My Battle with Europe's Deep Establishment

“America has been much better than almost every other country at resisting the temptation to interfere with the logic of creative destruction. In most of the world, politicians have made a successful business out of promising the benefits of creative destruction without the costs. Communists have blamed the costs on capitalist greed. Populists have blamed them on sinister vested interests. European-style socialists have taken a more mature approach, admitting that creation and destruction are bound together, but claiming to be able to boost the creative side of creative destruction while eliminating the destructive side through a combination of demand management and wise intervention. The result has usually been disappointing: stagnation, inflation, or some other crisis.”
― Alan Greenspan, Capitalism in America: An Economic History of the United States