Politicians like to tell people what they want to hear - and what they want to hear is what won't happen.
Interpretation
This quote critiques politicians for misleading the public by making false promises.
Paul Samuelson's quote highlights the tendency of politicians to cater to the desires of the electorate by making promises that are often unrealistic or unlikely to be fulfilled. It suggests a disconnect between what politicians say to gain approval and the reality of what can be achieved, emphasizing the importance of critical thinking among voters when evaluating political rhetoric.
In practice
In a political debate, one could use this quote to critique a candidate's unrealistic promises.
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.
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.
There's nothing in Keynesian economics that would allow you to solve stagflation. But there's nothing in neoclassical economics that would allow you to solve stagflation, either.
[The Federal Convention] is really an assembly of demigods.
There also exists another alliance - at first glance a strange one, a surprising one - but if you think about it, in fact, one which is well grounded and easy to understand. This is the alliance between our Communist leaders and your capitalists. This alliance is not new. ... We observe continuous and steady support by the businessmen of the West of the Soviet Communist leaders.
Now that the House of Commons is trying to become useful, it does a great deal of harm.
The defense budget is more than a piggy bank for people who want to get busy beating swords into pork barrels.
One vote. That's a big weapon you have there, Mister. In 1948, just one additional vote in each precinct would have elected Dewey. In 1960, one vote in each precinct in Illinois would have elected Nixon. One vote.
Our purpose now is to reclaim democracy itself. We are here to affirm that when Americans stand up and speak their minds and say America can do better, that is not a challenge to patriotism; it is the heart and soul of patriotism.
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