William Vickrey Quotes & Sayings

“Don't you think you're just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic?”

“Increasingly prices are set by sellers to raise their prices without a loss of sales sufficient to wipe out the gain.”

“Currently a level of unemployment of 7 percent or more seems to be required to keep inflation from accelerating, a level quite unacceptable as a permanent situation.”

“Deficits do not in themselves produce inflation, nor does a balanced budget assure a stable price level.”

“Larger deficits are necessary and proper means to mitigate unemployment as the far greater evil in terms of human welfare.”

“Balancing a nominal budget will solve nothing, and attempting to achieve such a spurious balance will produce much mischief.”

“Nearly all educational expenditure should be considered a capital outlay, whether it provides a future return in the form of enhanced taxable income or in terms of an enhanced quality of life.”

“The supply-side effect of a restrictive monetary policy is likely to be perverse, in that high interest rates enter into costs and thus exert inflationary pressure.”

“Practically, the desirable situation ought to be one in which any reasonably responsible person willing to accept available employment can find a job paying a living wage within 48 hours.”

“There is no reason inherent in the real resources available to us why we cannot move rapidly within the next two or three years to a state of genuine full employment.”