Nothing fails like success because we don't learn from it. We learn only from failure.
Kenneth E. BouldingRead
Economics has been incurably growth-oriented and addicted to everybody growing richer, even at the cost of exhaustion of resources and pollution of the environment.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the relentless pursuit of economic growth, highlighting its detrimental effects on resources and the environment.
Kenneth E. Boulding emphasizes the obsession with continual economic growth as a fundamental flaw in economics. This addiction to increasing wealth often comes at the expense of environmental degradation and resource depletion, suggesting that a more sustainable approach is necessary for a healthier planet and society.
Themes
EconomicsGrowthEnvironmentResourcesSustainability
In practice
Example use cases
During a presentation on environmental policies, this quote can highlight the need for sustainable economic practices.
More from Kenneth E. Boulding
All quotes βAs long as man was small in numbers and limited in technology, he could realistically regard the earth as an infinite reservoir, an infinite source of inputs and an infinite cesspool for outputs. Today we can no longer make this assumption. Earth has become a space ship, not only in our imagination but also in the hard realities of the social, biological, and physical system in which man is enmeshed.
Kenneth E. BouldingRead
Mathematics brought rigor to Economics. Unfortunately, it also brought mortis.
Kenneth E. BouldingRead
Are we to regard the world of nature simply as a storehouse to be robbed for the immediate benefit of man? ... Does man have any responsibility for the preservation of a decent balance in nature, for the preservation of rare species, or even for the indefinite continuance of his race?
Kenneth E. BouldingRead
Similar quotes
America's role in the global economy inevitably was going to diminish; we're smaller relative to - as China, India, other emerging markets grow.
Joseph StiglitzRead
A banker who is allowed to borrow money at X and loan it out at X plus Y will just go crazy and do too much of it if the civilization doesn't have rules that prevent it.
Charlie MungerRead
There can be economy only where there is efficiency.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
Crony capitalism is much easier than competing in an open market. But it erodes our overall standard of living and stifles entrepreneurs by rewarding the politically favored rather than those who provide what consumers want.
Charles KochRead
I agree that income disparity is the great issue of our time. It is even broader and more difficult than the civil rights issues of the 1960s. The '99 percent' is not just a slogan. The disparity in income has left the middle class with lowered, not rising, income, and the poor unable to reach the middle class.
Eleanor Holmes NortonRead
COMMERCE, n. A kind of transaction in which A plunders from B the goods of C, and for compensation B picks the pocket of D of money belonging to E.
Ambrose BierceRead