Thinking Citizen Blog — Milton Friedman on Taxation, Anatole France on the Law, Anonymous Sage on Bailouts
By: John Muresianu
Tags: Quotes, Wisdom, Thinking Citizen Blog, Economics, History

Thinking Citizen Blog — Tuesday is Economics, Finance, and Business Day

Today’s topic: Milton Friedman on Taxation, Anatole France on the Law, Anonymous Sage on Bailouts

Important stuff bears repeating. The most important stuff bears memorizing. What are your candidates for memorization related to economics, business, and finance? Today, my three all time favorites related to taxation, poverty, and justice. Think of them as three stocking stuffers. Experts — please chime in.

Correct, elaborate, elucidate.

MILTON FRIEDMAN — the math of justice, taxation, and liberty

1. “There is all the difference in the world, however, between two kinds of assistance through government that seem superficially similar: first, 90 percent of us agreeing to impose taxes on ourselves in order to help the bottom 10 percent, and second, 80 percent voting to impose taxes on the top 10 percent to help the bottom 10 percent”

2. “The first may be wise or unwise, an effective or ineffective way to help the disadvantaged — but it is consistent with belief in both equality of opportunity and liberty.”

3. “The second seeks equality of outcome and is entirely antithetical to liberty.”

NB: Milton Friedman won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1976. He is one of the most quotable and quoted economists of all time. See third link below.

ANATOLE FRANCE — poverty and equality before the law

1. “The law in its majestic equality forbids the rich and the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg for food, and to steel bread.”

2. Anatole France won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1921.

3. Another gem: “It is human nature to think wisely and act in absurd fashion.”

NB: See the fourth link for quotes in both french and english.

ANONYMOUS SAGE: “Privatized profits, socialized losses” — why didn’t Wall Street Bonuses decline more during the financial crisis of 2007–2009?

1. “Privatizing profits and socializing losses refers to the practice of treating company earnings as the rightful property of shareholders, while losses are treated as a responsibility that society must shoulder. In other words, the profitability of corporations are strictly for the benefit of their shareholders. But when the companies fail, the fallout — the losses and recovery — are the responsibility of the general public. Popular examples of this include taxpayer-funded subsidies or bailouts.”

2. Who first articulated this is unclear. But the chart above of Wall Street profits during the financial crisis of 2007–2009 speaks volumes.

3. The closest thing I could dig up was this quote from Noam Chomsky: “As in the past, the costs and risks of the coming phases of the industrial economy were to be socialized, with eventual profits privatized…” (from his book, Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy (2006).

NB: But I suspect that this concept goes way, way back. I think ultimately of the Athenian slave Aesop: “The little thieves we put in jail. The big thieves we appoint to public office.”

Anatole France

Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman — Wikiquote

Anatole France — Wikiquote

Privatizing Profits And Socializing Losses

Click here for the last three years of posts arranged by theme:

PDF with headlines — Google Drive

YOUR TURN — Please share:

a.) the coolest thing you learned this week related to business, economics, finance.

b.) the coolest thing you learned in your life related to business, economics, finance.

c.) anything at all related to business, economics, finance.

d.) anything at all