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.
Interpretation
The quote reflects concerns about financial speculation and its negative effects on the economy and productivity.
In this quote, Thomas Jefferson critiques the speculative nature of finance driven by an excess of paper currency, suggesting that this has led to a neglect of productive work, symbolized by ships left idle and tailors unable to work. He expresses skepticism about the idea that these financial excesses will resolve themselves, pointing to the difficulty of reforming those who are addicted to gambling with money, thus highlighting the challenges posed by financial irresponsibility.
In practice
In a discussion about the impacts of financial markets on everyday life, one might say, 'As Thomas Jefferson warned, our public credit may be good, but speculation can lead to harmful neglect of real work.'
The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them.
I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared
We must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude...If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labor and in our amusements...if we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance.
A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
Having a decent share of the national wealth for the middle class is not bad for growth. It is actually useful both for equity and efficiency reasons.
People who think a tax boost will cure inflation are the same ones who believe another drink will cure a hangover.
Economics taught in most of the elite universities are practically useless in my context. My country is dominated by drug economy and a mafia. Textbook economics does not work in my context, and I have very few recommendations from anybody as to how to put together a legal economy.
We must lay hold of the fact that economic laws are not made by nature. They are made by human beings.
A clear lesson of history is that a 'sine qua non' for sustained economic recovery following a financial crisis is a thoroughgoing repair of the financial system.
Credit markets were originally created to serve human needs; to provide businesses and individuals with capital to start or expand businesses or fulfill other financial needs.
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