QuoteProject
Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' is not above sudden, disturbing, movements. Since its inception, capitalism has known slumps and recessions, bubble and froth; no one has yet dis-invented the business cycle, and probably no one will; and what Schumpeter famously called the 'gales of creative destruction' still roar mightily from time to time. To lament these things is ultimately to lament the bracing blast of freedom itself.
Margaret Thatcher
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects on the unpredictable nature of capitalism and the essential role of freedom in driving economic change.

Margaret Thatcher discusses the inherent volatility of capitalism, acknowledging that fluctuations like slumps, recessions, and the 'gales of creative destruction' are part of a dynamic economic system. Rather than lamenting these upheavals, she emphasizes that they are a necessary consequence of the freedom that capitalism provides, suggesting that growth and innovation often arise from challenges and disruptions.

Themes

CapitalismFreedomCreative DestructionBusiness CycleEconomic Change

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a speech advocating for economic reforms.

More from Margaret Thatcher

When will Labour learn that you cannot build Jerusalem in Brussels.
Margaret ThatcherRead
Never in the history of human credit has so much been owed.
Margaret ThatcherRead
The battle for women's rights has been largely won.
Margaret ThatcherRead
Ought we not to ask the media to agree among themselves a voluntary code of conduct, under which they would not say or show anything which could assist the terrorists' morale or their cause while the hijack lasted.
Margaret ThatcherRead
Israel must never be expected to jeopardize her security: if she was ever foolish enough to do so, and then suffered for it, the backlash against both honest brokers and Palestinians would be immense - 'land for peace' must also bring peace.
Margaret ThatcherRead
If it's me against 48, I feel sorry for the 48.
Margaret ThatcherRead

Similar quotes

One of the most powerful insights in economics is this idea of a division of labor. You do the thing you're good at. Other people do something else that they're good at. The net effect is better for everybody.
Paul RomerRead
One-sided national economic triumphs cannot be achieved in the increasingly interwoven global economy without precipitating calamitous consequences for everyone.
Zbigniew BrzezinskiRead
As our economy faces up to potential labour shortages due to our ageing population and as it moves to a new level of sophistication to compete with the rest of the world, we're going to need every Australian on board pulling their weight, rejoining the workforce, gaining new skills. Writing off individuals and communities suffering from poverty just creates a dead weight for our economy to drag along.
Julia GillardRead
That economic decisions are made without certain knowledge of the consequences is pretty self-evident. But, although many economists were aware of this elementary fact, there was no systematic analysis of economic uncertainty until about 1950.
Kenneth ArrowRead
It is an extreme perversion of capitalism if you can trade in something before you have even paid for it.
James DysonRead
Our public credit is good, but the abundance of paper has produced a spirit of gambling in the funds, which has laid up our ships at the wharves as too slow instruments of profit, and has even disarmed the hand of the tailor of his needle and thimble. They say the evil will cure itself. I wish it may; but I have rarely seen a gamester cured, even by the disasters of his vocation.
Thomas JeffersonRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.