AT
Alex Tabarrok
49quotes
Quotes by Alex Tabarrok
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Michael Moore didn’t have to worry that anyone would misinterpret the title of his film, ‘Capitalism: A Love Story,’ because in Hollywood, no one loves capitalism. That’s too bad, because Hollywood is one of capitalism’s greatest successes.
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Capitalists work hard to produce what consumers want. Artists who work too hard to produce what consumers want are often accused of selling out. Thus, even the languages of capitalism and art conflict: a firm that has ‘sold out’ has succeeded, but an artist that has ‘sold out’ has failed.
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Hollywood wants its heroes to be virtuous, but it defines virtue in a way that excludes any action that is self-interested. If virtue means putting others ahead of self, then it’s clear that most people, let alone most capitalists, aren’t very virtuous.
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I encourage everyone I know to sign an organ donor card, but if someone doesn’t want to sign, that’s his or her choice. If someone isn’t willing to give an organ, however, why should that person be allowed to receive an organ?
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Like many works of literature, Hollywood chooses for its villains people who strive for social dominance through the pursuit of wealth, prestige, and power. But the ordinary business of capitalism is much more egalitarian: It’s about finding meaning and enjoyment in work and production.
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The first thing you learn when you’re blogging is that people are one click away from leaving you. So you’ve got to get to the point, you can’t waste people’s time, you’ve got to give them some value for their limited attention span.
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College has been oversold. It has been oversold to students who end up dropping out or graduating with degrees that don’t help them very much in the job market. It also has been oversold to the taxpayers, who foot the bill for subsidies that do nothing to encourage innovation and economic growth.
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More retirees, longer life expectancy, larger benefits, and fewer workers – these trends have meant substantial increases in the payroll tax. Since the social security program began, the payroll tax has increased more than 500 percent.
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Writing on the blog, you want to get attention and make strong claims. In academic work, that often doesn’t pay, so sometimes it’s a little bit difficult going back and forth to navigate these differences.
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Our obsessive focus on college schooling has blinded us to basic truths. College is a place, not a magic formula. It matters what subjects students study, and subsidies should focus on the subjects that matter the most – not to the students, but to everyone else.
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