What many economists fail to understand is that poor people are no less concerned about improving their lot and that of their children than rich people are.
Interpretation
Both rich and poor people share a common desire for better lives and futures for themselves and their children.
The quote by Theodore Schultz emphasizes that the aspirations and concerns for improvement in life are universal among all socioeconomic classes. It highlights the misconception that poor individuals are less motivated to seek better opportunities for themselves and their offspring, when in fact, they possess the same drive and determination as those in wealthier circumstances.
In practice
In a discussion about social programs, one might say, 'As Theodore Schultz noted, poor people are just as motivated to improve their lives and their children's futures.'
People who are rich find it hard to understand the behavior of poor people. Economists are no exception, for they, too, find it difficult to comprehend the preferences and scarcity constraints that determine the choices that poor people make.
The accepted ideas of any period are singularly those that serve the dominant economic interest...What economists believe and teach, whether in the United States or in the Soviet Union, is rarely hostile to the institutions - the private business enterprise, the Communist Party - that reflect the dominant economic power. Not to notice this takes effort, although many succeed.
It is particularly odd that economists who profess to be champions of a free-market economy, should go to such twists and turns to avoid facing the plain fact: that gold, that scarce and valuable market-produced metal, has always been, and will continue to be, by far the best money for human society.
The desire for economic prosperity is itself not culturally determined but almost universally shared
Without calculation, economic activity is impossible. Since under Socialism economic calculation is impossible, under Socialism there can be no economic activity in our sense of the word All economic change, therefore, would involve operations the value of which could neither be predicted beforehand nor ascertained after they had taken place. Everything would be a leap in the dark. Socialism is the renunciation of rational economy.
Long-term economic growth depends mainly on nonmonetary factors such as population growth and workforce participation, the skills and aptitudes of our workforce, the tools at their disposal, and the pace of technological advance. Fiscal and regulatory policies can have important effects on these factors.
This power becomes particularly irresistible when exercised by those who, because they hold and control money, are able also to govern credit and determine its allotment, for that reason supplying, so to speak, the lifeblood to the entire economic body, and grasping, as it were, in their hands the very soul of production, so that no one dare breathe against their will.
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