How do we get more politicians to move from 'fixing' the system to reforming the system? The obvious answer is to either improve the quality of public services or reduce the public's dependence on them. Both approaches are necessary.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that effective political change requires both improving public services and reducing reliance on them.
Raghuram Rajan emphasizes the need for politicians to transition from merely fixing the existing system to pursuing meaningful reform. This involves enhancing the quality of public services provided to citizens while simultaneously encouraging a shift away from over-dependence on these services. Ultimately, true reform encompasses both improving what exists and fostering independence among the public.
In practice
This quote could be used in a political debate to emphasize the need for reform.
The U.S. should worry about the effects of its polices on the rest of the world. We would like to live in a world where countries take into account the effect of their policies on other countries and do what is right, broadly, rather than what is just right given the circumstances of that country.
Customers often value a good more when its price goes up. One reason may be its signaling value. An expensive handcrafted mechanical watch may tell time no more accurately than a cheap quartz model; but, because few people can afford one, buying it signals that the owner is rich.
The problem with forbearance is that it always looks like a good thing to do until it stops working.
Perhaps the hardest challenge has been to persuade the public, impatient for rapid growth, of the need to ensure stability first. Growth, it is argued, is always more important, regardless of the looming economic risks.
Too many years away from academia renders you pretty incompetent at research and teaching. So I had to go back.
The gap in India has always been between the promise and the execution.
The era when the United States was the dominant global power is steadily coming to an end, and it must find a way of acknowledging this and framing its ambitions and interests accordingly. Instead of claiming the right to continuing primacy in east Asia, for example, it should seek to share that primacy with China.
In a strange way, I expected Russia to become more like America since the Soviet Union collapsed, but the reverse is true. America has become more like Russia: a kleptocratic society.
Populists and isolationists ignore the tangible benefits that have resulted from our active international role during the past half-century.
The need for peace in Northern Ireland goes well beyond political stability. It now speaks to regional Europe and even global stability.
No man should have a political office because he wants a job.
The abortion cases produced an enormous amount of mail to my chambers, vastly more than to the other chambers, I am sure. I sometimes thought there wasn't a woman in the United States who didn't write me a letter on one side or the other of that issue.
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