Robert Solow

ambitious goal proficient people feel

"It is a good idea to be ambitious, to have goals, to want to be good at what you do, but it is a terrible mistake to let drive and ambition get in the way of treating people with kindness and decency. The point is not that they will then be nice to you. It is that you will feel better about yourself."

— Robert Solow

two factor production three-dimensional 3D diagram

"If God had meant there to be more than two factors of production, He would have made it easier for us to draw three-dimension al diagrams."

— Robert Solow

computer age productivity statistics

"You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics."

— Robert Solow

growth theory article 1957 Adam Smith

"Growth theory did not begin with my articles of 1956 and 1957, and it certainly did not end there. Maybe it began with 'The Wealth of Nations'; and probably even Adam Smith had predecessors."

— Robert Solow

computers growth statistics

"Computers show up everywhere except the growth statistics."

— Robert Solow

giraffe neck blood head

"I remember once reading that it is still not understood how the giraffe manages to pump an adequate blood supply all the way up to its head; but it is hard to imagine that anyone would conclude tht giraffes do not have long necks. At least not anyone who had ever been to a zoo."

— Robert Solow

public discussion economic policy ignorance

"Why does a public discussion of economic policy so often show the abysmal ignorance of the participants?"

— Robert Solow

land user payment annual rental value

"The user of land should not be allowed to acquire rights of indefinite duration for single payments. For efficiency, for adequate revenue and for justice, every user of land should be required to make an annual payment to the local government equal to the current rental value of the land that he or she prevents others from using."

— Robert Solow

perfect anti-sepsis surgery sewer

"The fact that there is no such thing as a perfect anti-sepsis does not mean that one might as well do brain surgery in a sewer."

— Robert Solow

natural resources world exhaustion caastrophe

"The world can, in effect, get along without natural resources, so exhaustion is just an event, not a catastrophe."

— Robert Solow

economics weeding out error hard fun

"But part of the job of economics is weeding out errors. That is much harder than making them, but also more fun."

— Robert Solow