The consumer, so it is said, is the king each is a voter who uses his money as votes to get the things done that he wants done.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the power of consumers in a market economy, highlighting their role in driving demand with their purchasing decisions.
In this quote, Paul Samuelson articulates the critical role that consumers play in the economy by equating their spending to voting. Just as citizens cast votes to influence governance, consumers 'vote' with their money to signal their preferences and priorities, effectively determining which goods and services flourish in the marketplace. This highlights the direct impact that individual buying choices have on economic outcomes and business practices, suggesting that consumer power is significant in shaping the economy.
In practice
In a business presentation discussing market trends, this quote can reinforce the importance of consumer preferences.
To a person of analytical ability, perceptive enough to realise that mathematical equipment was a powerful sword in economics, the world of economics was his or her oyster in 1935. The terrain was strewn with beautiful theorems begging to be picked up and arranged in unified order.
I can't think of a president who has been overburdened by a knowledge of economics.
My belief is that nothing that can be expressed by mathematics cannot be expressed by careful use of literary words.
Politicians like to tell people what they want to hear - and what they want to hear is what won't happen.
My family was well off but not rich. I spent the four years I was an undergraduate working on the beach. And it wasn't because I was lazy; it was because my freshman class would go to a hundred different employers and wouldn't get a nibble. That was a disequilibrium system. I realized that the ordinary old-fashioned Euclidean geometry didn't apply.
Economics has never been a science - and it is even less now than a few years ago.
The forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
If low taxes were the way that people like me created wealth, then we'd be starting our companies in the Congo or Somalia or Afghanistan, but we're not. We come to places where there are lots and lots of customers.
If you paid Americans a living wage, they would be able to pay for products made by Americans in America.
Prosperous farmers mean more employment, more prosperity for the workers and the business men of every industrial area in the whole country.
The economic expansion that began in 2001, while it has been great for corporate profits, has yet to produce any significant gains for ordinary working Americans. And now it looks as if it never will.
All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.
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