The Surprising Design of Market Economies Quotes

“if the money devoted to U.S. border enforcement were instead channeled into structural adjustment in Mexico, as was done by the EU for Spain, unauthorized migration would likely disappear as a significant demographic and political issue in North America.”
― Alex Marshall, The Surprising Design of Market Economies

“Constructing efficient and beautiful infrastructure is part of building efficient and beautiful markets.”
― Alex Marshall, The Surprising Design of Market Economies

“Transportation and education pay immense social and economic dividends in the long run, but are difficult to make profitable in the short run.”
― Alex Marshall, The Surprising Design of Market Economies

“All this relates to markets, because building a new transportation system is about building a new market system of production and exchange. If you do it right, you make things faster and more efficient. And you need government to do it.”
― Alex Marshall, The Surprising Design of Market Economies

“What is clear from railroad history is that if government is to mix with private enterprise, something unavoidable in most instances, then it should do so in ways that serve its citizens, and that mission should come first.”
― Alex Marshall, The Surprising Design of Market Economies

“Rather than just reacting to events, as transportation planners tend to do with traffic congestion, makers of, say, a patent system can construct one to reward creators or distribute intellectual property in ways that are not simply reacting to market pressures. We don’t only have to enlarge what is there. We can light out for new territory, and make new places, and markets.”
― Alex Marshall, The Surprising Design of Market Economies

“We create the kind of markets we want. If we build elegant infrastructure, we have elegant markets.”
― Alex Marshall, The Surprising Design of Market Economies

“If you look at the way society and our nation have progressed, a simple rule is that they have progressed by converting private responsibilities to public responsibilities.”
― Alex Marshall, The Surprising Design of Market Economies

“What is needed in our nation is a renewed respect for the noncompetitive, more cooperative parts of our society that the competitive, for-profit parts rely upon. Rather than trying to “marketize” everything, we should realize and teach that for-profit markets and capitalism itself rest on our willingness to do certain things without immediate individual benefit.”
― Alex Marshall, The Surprising Design of Market Economies

“Markets concern property, and so it’s essential in markets that somebody or something be able to own something.”
― Alex Marshall, The Surprising Design of Market Economies