15 Quotes by Yaron Brook

It isn’t selfish to sacrifice others to yourself.

Shortly after Medicare was passed, Americans were told it would cost $12 billion in 1990. Actual cost? $98 billion. Americans were also told that the cost of Medicaid would be less than $1 billion in 1992. Actual cost? $17 billion.

The bottom line is that the government has artificially mitigated lenders’ risk, and it has done so on the perverse, altruistic premise that “society” has a moral duty to increase home ownership among low-income Americans.

On the individualist approach, society is not something above the individual to which he owes a duty – it is merely a group of individuals, each with his own dreams, goals and purposes.

In short, finance gives you the opportunity to dramatically increase your consumption by doing nothing – or, more precisely, by choosing not to consume everything you produce today, but instead providing the productive economy with savings that can be used to generate additional economic value with minimal effort on your part. For all of the demonization of financiers, this is as close to magic as you can get.

If we didn’t have finance, though? Forget the 1970s – try the 1270s. Economic progress emerges from the intelligent combination of capital and innovation. Remove capital from the equation – and the financial markets that accumulate and direct that capital into the hands of innovators – and the result is poverty and stagnation.