Tyler Cowen Quotes

The Tenth Commandment sends a message to socialists, to egalitarians, to people obsessed with fairness, to American presidential candidates in the year 2000 - to everyone who believes that wealth should be redistributed. And that message is clear and concise: Go to Hell.

A conservative is a fellow who thinks a rich man should have a square deal.

I believe in capitalism but in fair capitalism.

Of course we want prosperity, but we wish prosperity in such a way … so that everybody will get his share, and that it will not be confined to a few who monopolize the means of production or the means of transportation, and thus prevent that equality of distribution that we all like to see.

I have always found it quaint and rather touching that there is a movement [Libertarians] in the US that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough.

The difference between Libertarian and Conservative is that Conservatives understand this, and know that unregulated capitalism will eventually end with human meat sold in market places, and slavery. Alas, many Conservatives think that everything has to be regulated and controlled.

There can be no liberty unless there is economic liberty.

An argument fatal to the communist theory, is suggested by the fact, that a desire for property is one of the elements of our nature.

If people can keep track of all the celebrity gossip, there's no reason we can't also assimilate the key concepts of economic philosophy.

Socialism states that you owe me something simply because I exist. Capitalism, by contrast, results in a sort of reality-forced altruism: I may not want to help you, I may dislike you, but if I don't give you a product or service you want, I will starve. Voluntary exchange is more moral than forced redistribution.

As time goes on we get closer to that American Dream of there being a pie cut up and shared. Usually greed and selfishness prevent that and there is always one bad apple in every barrel.

The right to suffer is one of the joys of a free economy.

The tax program is based upon a broad and just social and economic purpose ... not to destroy wealth, but to create a broader range of opportunity, to restrain the growth of unwholesome and sterile accumulations.

The school of laissez faire, of which you seem to be a pronounced advocate, has produced great men in advocating the theory of each for himself, and his Satanic Majesty taking the hindermost

…no one should own more than a certain amount of land or receive more than a certain amount of income…

The economy must provide justice as well as prosperity.

In a capitalist society, all human relationships are voluntary. Men are free to cooperate or not, to deal with one another or not, as their own individual judgments, convictions and interests dictate.

I think it's important to remember that civil rights and economic rights are mutually dependent.

We need to create an economy that works for everyone, not crony capitalism and unchecked corporate consolidation.

We must ensure the economy really works for all, to address unconscionable wealth and income disparities that allow access to opportunity for some over others.

That's the trick of free market economic theory: it doesn't just ask you to only be selfish and not care about others. It tells you that by being selfish, you are helping others. And, in fact, by trying to directly help others, you will hurt them.

To describe Peter Thiel as simply a libertarian wildly understates the case. His belief system is based on unapologetic selfishness and economic Darwinism.

Egalitarianism, in every form and shape, is incompatible with the idea of private property.

If you just sort of say, everyone gets equal pay, you get away from the whole American dream, you get away from capitalism in a sense.

Whoever claims the right to redistribute the wealth produced by others is claiming the right to treat human beings as chattel.