Quotes by Robert H. Frank

Robert H. Frank

A good school is a relative concept, and the better schools are located in more expensive neighborhoods. But when everyone bids more for a house in a better school district, they succeed only in bidding up the prices of those houses. As before, 50 percent of all children will attend schools in the bottom half of the school quality distribution. As in the familiar stadium metaphor, all stand, hoping to get a better view, only to discover that no one sees better than if all had remained seated.

Children

School

Views

Adam Smith’s uncritically enthusiastic modern disciples portray his invisible hand theory as saying that market forces reliably harness selfish individuals to serve the common good. That’s often true, but as Darwin recognized clearly, many traits that serve the interests of individual animals make life more difficult for larger groups.

Animal

Hands

Selfish

All parents want to send their children to the best possible schools. But because a good school is a relative concept, a family cannot achieve its goal unless it outbids similar families for a house in a neighborhood served by such a school. Failure to do so often means having to send your kids to a school with metal detectors at the front entrance and students who score in the 20th percentile in reading and math. Most families will do everything possible to avoid having to send their kids to a school like that. But because of the logic of musical chairs, they’re inevitably frustrated.

Children

Reading

School

As economists have long noted, the puzzle is not that so few people vote, it’s that so many do. After all, no individual’s vote has ever tipped the balance in a presidential election.

Long

People

Presidential

As John Maynard Keynes taught us in the 1930s, in such situations, government is the only entity with both the motive and the ability to boost total spending by enough to put people back to work. As it happens there are long lists of important public projects that cry out to be done.

Government

Long

Taught Us

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.

People

Presidential

Thinking

For the three decades after WWII, incomes grew at about 3 percent a year for people up and down the income ladder, but since then most income growth has occurred among the top quintile. And among that group, most of the income growth has occurred among the top 5 percent. The pattern repeats itself all the way up. Most of the growth among the top 5 percent has been among the top 1 percent, and most of the growth among that group has been among the top one-tenth of one percent.

Growth

People

Years

Getting the economy back on its feet is properly viewed as an investment in future prosperity. When businesses and consumers confront attractive investment opportunities, often the only way to seize them is by borrowing. The same is true for government. Contrary to the pronouncements of critics of economic stimulus, these investments will not impoverish our grandchildren. Continuing to allow the economy to languish in recession is the surest way to impoverish them.

Feet

Grandchildren

Opportunity

If government is inevitable, the challenge is to come up with the most effective one possible.

Challenges

Come Up

Government

If the search is for examples that contradict the predictions of standard economic models, a good rule of thumb is to start in France.

Economic Models

Example

Thumbs

Follow The Behaviour University in order to get the greatest quotes from the greatest people of all time so that you can tap into your own greatness.

Ability

Action

Animal

Assets

Bars

Behavior

Believe

Bumps

Careers

Challenges

Children

Class

Come Up

Country

Couple

Curves

Daughter

Decent

Depends

Doe

Dollars

Economic

Economic Models

Essentials

Evaluation

Example

Exercise

Feels

Feet

Goal

Government

Grandchildren

Growth

Hands

Home

Hurt

Income

Jobs

Kids

Links

Long

Luxury

Mean

Military

Mistake

Mountain

Needs

Opportunity

Optimistic

Outcomes

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

Tool

The Autobiography

Tool

The Behaviour Diary

Tool

The Dating Diary

Tool

The Relationship Therapist

Tool

Quotes by Robert H. Frank

Robert H. Frank

As economists have long noted, the puzzle is not that so few people vote, it’s that so many do. After all, no individual’s vote has ever tipped the balance in a presidential election.

As John Maynard Keynes taught us in the 1930s, in such situations, government is the only entity with both the motive and the ability to boost total spending by enough to put people back to work. As it happens there are long lists of important public projects that cry out to be done.

If government is inevitable, the challenge is to come up with the most effective one possible.

If the search is for examples that contradict the predictions of standard economic models, a good rule of thumb is to start in France.

Get Social with TBU

Topics by Robert H. Frank

Popular Tools

The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

Menu

Menu