Permaculture Economy Quotes

The real cost of something is its value in alternative uses. This truth always presents itself in prices. There is no benefit that may be gained without cost to the same individual who gained the benefit. There is no benefit that may be presented without cost to the same individual who present the benefit. ~ Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

The Profit function: Individual profits cause collective growth and prosperity. It is necessary for individual people and businesses to profit in a Permaculture Economy where justice is maintained and fairly applied. Profits are earned when efficiency is mastered. With profits, individuals invest in (a) new and innovative means of production which will allow more profits, or (b) buying products and services from other individuals who are also seeking profit by providing value.

Profits also incentivize individuals to be productive participants in society to begin with. If there will be no profit in an activity, business or industry, then individuals will decline participation in that activity, business or industry. Since profits are only possible when buyers are satisfied with the productivity of sellers, then it is also true that an individuals willingness to participate in an activity, business or industry is preceded by the buyers satisfaction which allows the seller to profit. But when buyers are dissatisfied and decline participation, it forces sellers to decline participation. Inversely, if profits are eradicated through the force of price-controls by the government, then sellers will decline participation which then causes buyers to decline participation. And when both sellers and buyers decline participation, then whole industries and economies collapse. ~ Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

It is not the role of government or any central planner to formulate the final distributions of wealth and income. ~ Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

The global centre of power shifted to Europe only between 1750 and 1850, when Europeans humiliated the Asian powers in a series of wars and conquered large parts of Asia. By 1900 Europeans firmly controlled the world's economy and most of its territory. In 1950 western Europe and the United States together accounted for more than half of global production, whereas China's portion had been reduced to 5 per cent.4 ~ Yuval Noah Harari

But the primary reason for wanting the dollar to become more competitive in the near future is that we may need an increase in exports this year and in 2007 to sustain the economy's current pace of expansion. ~ Martin Feldstein

It is no great feat for an economy to create a large number of very-low-wage jobs. Slavery, after all, was a full employment system. ~ Robert B. Reich

Them that's got shall get, Them that's not shall lose. So the Bible says, And it still is news. Mama may have, Papa may have, But God bless the child that's got his own. ~ Billie Holiday

It isn't possible to give government just a little control over the economy and our lives. Once we cede that power to government, it uses the power to take more from us. That's why every year the government controls more of our lives. ~ Harry Browne

Let us have the candor to acknowledge that what we call "the economy" or "the free market" is less and less distinguishable from warfare. ~ Wendell Berry

It was the task of industrial society to destroy all of that. All that "community" implies -- self-sufficiency, mutual aid, morality in the marketplace, stubborn tradition, regulation by custom, organic knowledge instead of mechanistic science -- had to be steadily and systematically disrupted and displaced. All of the practices that kept the individual from being a consumer had to be done away with so that the cogs and wheels of an unfettered machine called "the economy" could operate without interference, influenced merely by invisible hands and inevitable balances and all the rest of that benevolent free-market system guided by what Cobbett called, his lip curled toward Hume and James Steuart and Adam Smith, "Scotch Feelosophy. ~ Kirkpatrick Sale

According to the media and other stock market "experts," the equities bull is forever hiding just around that next corner on Wall Street. But millions of investors who listened to the experts back in 1998-2001 about "the New Economy" get hammered in the stock market and are still trying to get back to even.
The smart investor looks for opportunities to acquire value on the cheap, with one eye out for a dynamic change in the offing that might make that investment even more valuable. ~ Jim Rogers

The serious problem is the education of the peasantry. The peasant economy is scattered, and the socialization of agriculture, judging by the Soviet Union's experience, will require a long time and painstaking work. Without socialization of agriculture, there can be no complete, consolidated socialism. ~ Mao Zedong

What we need to do first is to find out how big the migration problem is and what the economic consequences of it are for the United States and Mexico. We hear a lot of extravagant numbers and claims made, but very few hard facts. We don't really know what, if any, burdens illegal migrants impose on the US economy or the social welfare apparatus, and those issues must be clarified. ~ Ernesto Zedillo

It takes a good deal of physical courage to ride a horse. This, however, I have. I get it at about forty cents a flask, and take it as required. ~ Stephen Leacock

The U.S. couldn't even get rid of Saddam Hussein. And we all know that the EU is just a passing fad. They'll be killing each other again in less than a year. I'm sick to death of all these fascist lawsuits. ~ Bill Gates

Not all political actors share our vision of fighting terrorism, lessening tensions in the region and focusing on building the economy. It is natural that they would challenge the government, but we have fought every challenge effectively. The daily ups and down of democracy should not be interpreted as lack of stability. ~ Asif Ali Zardari

The very concept of universal formal education is a product (and a relatively late product) of the capitalist world-economy. ~ Immanuel Wallerstein

The total economy of Latin America is bigger than China. ~ William Hague

Call a thing immoral or ugly, soul-destroying or a degradation to man, a peril to the peace of the world or to the well-being of future generations: as long as you have not shown it to be "uneconomic" you have not really questioned its right to exist, grow, and prosper. ~ E.F. Schumacher

Trickle-down economics So long as power remains privately concentrated, everybody, everybody, has to be committed to one overriding goal, and that's to make sure that the rich folk are happy - because, unless they are, nobody else is going to get anything. So, if you're a homeless person sleeping in the streets of Manhattan, let's say, your first concern must be that the guys in the mansions are happy - because, if they're happy, then they'll invest, and the economy will work, and things will function, and then maybe something will trickle down to you somewhere along the line. But if they're not happy, everything's going to grind to a halt, and you're not even going to get anything trickling down. ~ Noam Chomsky

The core principle is that we want an economy that works for everyone, not just for a small elite. We want equal opportunity, not equality of outcome. We want to make sure that there's upward mobility again, in our society and in our economy. ~ Robert Reich

The Metropolis should have been aborted long before it became New York, London or Tokyo. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

One of President Obama's winning points last night was about how sanctions against Iran are crippling their economy. And believe me, if anyone knows how to cripple an economy, it's President Obama. ~ Jay Leno

If you look at the fact that the best chance we have for a good economy is the private sector. The government cannot create jobs. If the government could create jobs, then Communism would have worked. But didn't work. So what we have to do is allow the private sector and the entrepreneurial spirit to lead us back to a job-filled recovery. ~ Tim Scott

Health is certainly extremely important, and we've done a number of things at Facebook to help improve global health and work in that area, and I am excited to do more there, too. But the reality is that it's not an either-or. People need to be healthy and be able to have the Internet as a backbone to connect them to the whole economy. ~ Mark Zuckerberg

A 'mixed economy' is a society in the process of committing suicide. ~ Ayn Rand

Let's be honest, this is a consumer based economy in America. That's all we manufacture here is need and appetite. We are the world's mouth. They make things in other countries, and they're like, 'Send it to America; they'll eat it.' ~ Marc Maron

Success for a woman means absolute surrender, in whatever direction. Whether she paints a picture, or loves a man, there is no division of labor possible in her economy. To the attainment of any end worth living for, a symmetrical sacrifice of her nature is compulsory upon her. ~ Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

When people feel like, 'Lenders weren't fair with me; I don't have any responsibility to be fair with them.' If we go far enough down that line, much of the fabric of our economy starts to unravel. ~ Elizabeth Warren

President Roosevelt's leadership put the world on notice that the United States of America - with the freest, most dynamic economy the world had ever seen - was open for business. ~ John Hoeven

Every country in the world protects its economy except the E.U. We would restore economic sovereignty and decision-making to France. We would protect strategic industries, and we would protect vital areas such as the energy sector. But we would not cut ourselves from the world. There could still be trade. ~ Marion Marechal-Le Pen

suggest that the millennial generation, deeply affected by the Great Recession and a stagnant global economy, has begun to shift its psychic priorities from material success to living a meaningful existence. ~ Jeremy Rifkin

But now, more and more, its society is concerned with economy and finance. ~ Tadao Ando

The Chinese public is deeply nationalist, which matters to China's unelected political leadership as much as U.S. nationalism does to American politicians. As China becomes the world's largest economy, there is meaningful public pressure for its power status to advance in parallel. Any alternative would be humiliating. ~ Noah Feldman

Kids do better, frankly [when the economy is strong]. Jobs make great years for kids. ~ Edward Zigler

In God's economy, nothing is wasted. Through failure, we learn a lesson in humility which is probably needed, painful though it is. ~ Bill W.

The rich would do better with a smaller share of a rapidly growing economy then they're doing now with a large share of an economy that is barely growing at all. ~ Robert Reich

Price fixing does not represent simply windfall gains and losses to particular groups according to whether the price happens to be set higher or lower than it would be otherwise. It represents a net lose to the economy as a whole to the extent that many transactions do not take place at all, because the mutually acceptable possibilities have been reduced. ~ Thomas Sowell

In this new world economy, national boundaries are increasingly becoming obsolete. ~ Ronald Reagan

Why do people look to the government to fix the economy? It's mind-boggling. ~ Ziad K. Abdelnour

Our moral economy went bankrupt long before our financial one. ~ Steve Maraboli

We are precarious. Which is to say some good things (accumulation of diverse
knowledges, skills and abilities through work and life experiences in permanent
construction), and a lot of bad ones (vulnerability, insecurity, poverty, social
exposure). ~ Lisa Adkins

It is a game, the whole ball of wax is a game - your life, my life, politics, economy, hunger ... ~ Mandy Patinkin

In a healthy economy, empowering, sustaining and efficiency innovations operate in balance. A healthy economy creates and sustains more jobs before squeezing out inefficiencies. ~ Clayton M Christensen

I think the best president - because he changed the whole mood of the country, the whole economy of the country, and stood up to Communism ... that was continuing its causes around the world, and backed them off and caused them to collapse - and that was Ronald Reagan. ~ Pat Boone