QuoteProject
We cannot live without trade. A society can neither advance nor improve without excess of disposable income. This excess can only be amassed through the production of goods and services necessary or attractive to the mass. A financial system which allows this leads to inequality; one that does not leads to mass starvation.
David Mamet
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Trade is essential for societal advancement and wealth generation, but it can also create inequality.

In this quote, David Mamet emphasizes the fundamental role of trade in enabling society to progress and improve. He points out that the availability of disposable income, generated through the production of goods and services that appeal to people, is crucial for societal advancement, yet he also highlights the underlying tension between financial systems that can lead to inequality and those that may prevent widespread deprivation and starvation.

Themes

TradeSocietyEconomic GrowthInequalityWealth

In practice

Example use cases

During a lecture on economics, you might quote Mamet to discuss the importance of trade in societal development.

More from David Mamet

They say you can't study Kabbalah until you are at least 40 years old. You know why? You have to have experienced at least one generation making the same mistakes as the previous one.
David MametRead
My alma mater is the Chicago Public Library. I got what little educational foundation I got in the third-floor reading room, under the tutelage of a Coca-Cola sign.
David MametRead
You know, young actors say all the time, 'Should I use my own life experience?' And my response is, 'What choice do you have?'
David MametRead
It's hard for a Jew of my generation, an American Jew, who is philo-Zionistic, not to romanticize Israel.
David MametRead
You can't write about history without writing about politics at some point. History is about movements of people. 'What is criminality and what is government' is a theme that runs through every history.
David MametRead
Every reiteration of the idea that nothing matters debases the human spirit.
David MametRead

Similar quotes

There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as the result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.
Ludwig Von MisesRead
Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless.
Milton FriedmanRead
When people begin anticipating inflation, it doesn't do you any good anymore, because any benefit of inflation comes from the fact that you do better than you thought you were going to do.
Paul A. VolckerRead
The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe.
Karl MarxRead
No amount of debt restructuring, even debt forgiveness, will help the Greeks achieve real prosperity. What they need is not short-term relief but, rather, a long-term cure.
Edmund PhelpsRead
Economics, as it is often taught today, portrays us as homo economicus-someone who doesn't vote in presidential elections, doesn't return lost wallets, and doesn't leave tips when dining out of town. Julie Nelson reminds us that most people aren't really like that. She helps point the way to a richer, more descriptive way of thinking about economic life.
Robert H. FrankRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.