78 Posts Found

Profit is not the proper end and aim of management. It is what makes all the proper ends and aims possible.

Content: Quotation | Author: David Packard | Source: “strategy+business” | Subjects: Business Rules, Capitalism, Management

[Adam] Smith rejects interventions that exclude the market—but not interventions that include the market while aiming to do those important things that the market may leave undone.

Content: Quotation | Author: Amartya Sen | Source: “The New York Review of Books” | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

Smith viewed markets and capital as doing good work within their own sphere, but first, they required support from other institutions—including public services such as schools—and values other than pure profit seeking, and second, they needed restraint and correction by still other institutions—e.g., well-devised financial regulations and state assistance to the poor—for preventing instability, inequity, and injustice.

Content: Quotation | Author: Amartya Sen | Source: “The New York Review of Books” | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

Historically, capitalism did not emerge until new systems of law and economic practice protected property rights and made an economy based on ownership workable. Commercial exchange could not effectively take place until business morality made contractual behavior sustainable and inexpensive—not requiring constant suing of defaulting contractors, for example. Investment in productive businesses could not flourish until the higher rewards from corruption had been moderated. Profit-oriented … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Amartya Sen | Source: “The New York Review of Books” | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

The essence of capitalism is capitalizing—bringing forward the future value of cash to the present so that society can grow more quickly by taking risks. It goes back to the Dutchmen in the 16th century, sitting at their coffeehouses in Amsterdam and Leiden, loaning each other money for a guaranteed return. Someone said, “I’ll give you a little higher return if you give me a … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Richard Foster | Source: “McKinsey Quarterly” | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

The economy has produced great benefits for consumers and investors in the last thirty years: The Dow Jones has gone from 600 in 1975 to 13,000 today; we have countless TV channels; automakers are producing much better cars; we have many more choices for every kind of product, at lower prices. Capitalism has won. There’s no longer a contest between capitalism and communism.

But inequality is … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: “Across the Board (ATB)” | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

I don’t think people are cognizant at all [of the tradeoffs they’re making]. Where do we suppose the great deals come from? They come from companies that are buying abroad, pushing down real wages, fighting unions, rewarding any executive ruthless enough to slash costs, doing all sorts of things to get the best deals for consumers and investors. The citizen side of our brains might … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: “Across the Board (ATB)” | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

When everything that matters can be bought and sold, when commitments can be broken because they are no longer to our advantage, when shopping becomes salvation and advertising slogans become our litany, when our worth is measured by how much we earn and spend, then the market is destroying the very virtues on which in the long run it depends.

Content: Quotation | Source: “Harvard Business Review” | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

The modern capitalist is a fair-weather sailor. As soon as a storm rises, he abandons the duties of navigation and even sinks the boats which might carry him to safety by his haste to push his neighbor off and himself in.

Content: Quotation | Source: “The Atlantic Monthly” | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

It has always been imagined, especially by conservatives, that to associate all, or a large part, of economic activity with the state is to endanger freedom…

The greater danger is in the subordination of belief to the needs of the modern industrial system. As this persuades us on the goods we buy, and as it persuades us on the public policies that are necessary for its … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: “The Atlantic Monthly” | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

I think capitalism will win out always because people are greedy. And capitalism is the best system for making more out of less. The question is what kind of capitalism and for whose benefit is it working. And I think that you could have a less rapacious form of capitalism that would subdue all of these other conflicts. I think it’s a great shame that … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: “Ivey Business Journal” | Subject: Capitalism

In the next quarter-century, more and more kinds of work will be eligible to be done anywhere in the world by people who are skilled enough to do them. Companies of all kinds will be forced to ask, ‘What is our obligation to, commitment to, interest in the community and our workers? What are we really here for?’ I don’t know what the answers will … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: “Across the Board (ATB)” | Subjects: Capitalism, Social Responsibility (ESG)

Free markets cannot always be relied on to produce socially optimal, or even acceptable, outcomes. In many cases market evaluation is misleading from a social or environmental point of view – it may be a necessary form of evaluating economic activities, but it is not sufficient. Alternative evaluation of economic activities by the techniques of environmental and social reporting, accounting, and auditing is also needed. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: “European Business Forum (EBF)” | Subjects: Capitalism, Social Responsibility (ESG)

A capitalist economy can show individuals and organizations relative prices and profitable ways of resource allocation – but it cannot relieve them of the choice between goals and values.

Content: Quotation | Source: “European Business Forum (EBF)” | Subject: Capitalism

Laissez-faire capitalism is dangerous since it can undermine the very values on which open and democratic societies depend. [George] Soros has warned that the instabilities and inequalities of the capitalist system can feed into nationalistic, ethnic and religious fundamentalism.

Content: Quotation | Source: “European Business Forum (EBF)” | Subject: Capitalism

Every individual necessarily labors to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it … he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Adam Smith | Source: “Knowledge@Wharton” | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics, Personality / Behavior

There is one and only one social responsibility of business–to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game.

Content: Quotation | Subjects: Business Rules, Capitalism

Some regard private enterprise as if it were a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look upon it as a cow that they can milk. Only a handful see it for what it really is – the strong horse that pulls the whole cart.

Content: Quotation | Subject: Capitalism