The Poverty of Nations Quotes

“The biblical way to help people rise out of poverty is through wealth creation, not wealth redistribution. For lasting results, we must offer the poor a hand up, not merely a handout. You spell long-term poverty reduction “j-o-b-s.” Training and tools liberate people. Trade, not aid, builds the prosperity of nations.”
― Wayne A. Grudem, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“some nations have tried to bring about more economic equality in economically harmful ways, not through opening up free markets but through brute use of government power. Making equality a more important goal than overall economic growth is a mistake for a government, because merely distributing the same amount of wealth in different ways does not change the total amount of wealth a nation produces each year, which is the only way that any nation has grown from poverty to prosperity.”
― Barry Asmus, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels said, “The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: abolition of private property.”
― Barry Asmus, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“...human beings glorify God by achieving much more than survival. We glorify Him by understanding and ruling over the creation and then producing more and more wonderful goods from it for our enjoyment, with thanksgiving to God.”
― Barry Asmus, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“Frederick Catherwood rightly says "The teaching ofthe bible would appear to be that it is not the amount of a man's wealth which matters. What matters is the method by which he acquires it, how he uses it, and his attitude of mind toward it.”
― Barry Asmus, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“A free market system is one in which economic production and consumption are determined by the free choices of individuals rather than by governments, and this process is grounded in private ownership of the means of production.”
― Wayne A. Grudem, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“The cultural value that the purpose of government is to serve and bring benefit to the people as a whole will likely serve as the single greatest deterrent against corruption in government.”
― Barry Asmus, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“Incentives matter. Pay and working conditions matter. This is another reason why economic freedom matters.”
― Barry Asmus, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“The secret to human flourishing is not money but earned success in life.”24 He explains: Earned success means the ability to create value honestly—not by winning the lottery, not by inheriting a fortune, not by picking up a welfare check. It doesn’t even mean making money itself. Earned success is the creation of value in our lives or in the lives of others.25”
― Wayne A. Grudem, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“The Bible contains significant teachings that encourage the creation of goods and services. One example is the description of an “excellent wife” in Proverbs 31:10–31: “She makes linen garments and sells them; she delivers sashes to the merchant” (v. 24). She makes valuable products and so increases the GDP of Israel. This woman is productive, for “she seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands” (v. 13). She produces agricultural products from the earth, because “with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard” (v. 16). She sells products in the marketplace, because “she perceives that her merchandise is profitable” (v. 18). (The Holman Christian Standard Bible translates this as, “She sees that her profits are good”; this is also a legitimate translation because the Hebrew term sakar can refer to profit or gain from merchandise.)”
― Wayne A. Grudem, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“Making equality a more important goal than overall economic growth is a mistake for a government, because merely distributing the same amount of wealth in different ways does not change the total amount of wealth a nation produces each year, which is the only way that any nation has grown from poverty to prosperity. Economic freedom and government-forced economic equality are opposing goals, and when government forces economic equality (for example, through heavy taxes on the rich), it can actually diminish economic incentives and harm the GDP.”
― Wayne A. Grudem, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“The standard measurement of whether a country is rich or poor (in economic terms) is called “per capita income” (“per capita” means “per person”). Per capita income is calculated by dividing the total market value of everything produced in a nation in a year by the number of people in the nation.”
― Wayne A. Grudem, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“Entrepreneurs continually demonstrate that faith and imagination are the most important capital goods in a changing economy, and that wealth is a product less of money than of the mind to create, produce, invest, and, in the often-repeated expression of Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, to creatively destroy (to shut down businesses that are not working).”
― Barry Asmus, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“No other economic system has brought any country from poverty to prosperity. A free-market system is the only type that offers a workable alternative and resilient counterforce to the failed -isms and systems discussed in the previous chapter.”
― Barry Asmus, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“A free-market system is one in which economic production and consumption are determined by the free choices of individuals rather than governments, and this process is grounded in private ownership of the means of production. In very simple, practical terms, a free-market system means that people, not the government, own the farms, businesses, and properties in a nation (“the means of production”). “Fundamentally,” says Nobel laureate Milton Friedman, “there are only two ways of co-ordinating the economic activities of millions. One is central direction involving the use of coercion—the technique of the army and of the modern totalitarian state. The other is voluntary co-operation of individuals—the technique of the market place.”47”
― Barry Asmus, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“there is no thought in the Bible that poor people would become permanent recipients of gifts of money, year after year, or would become dependent on such gifts. The only exceptions were people who were completely unable to work due to permanent disabilities,”
― Barry Asmus, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“poor. They argue that greater economic equality is a matter of simple justice that governments should enforce. We certainly agree with the goal of helping the poor share in more of the wealth of a nation, and in several sections of the following chapters we discuss ways this can happen through fair, open, market-based solutions.7 The goal of this entire book is finding truly workable, sustainable ways to overcome poverty. However, some”
― Barry Asmus, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“The typical poverty program creates dependency, robs people of dignity, stifles initiative, and can foster a “What have you done for me lately?” sense of entitlement.”
― Barry Asmus, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“The results have been devastating. Today, more than half of the people in our world live on less than $2 each per day, and one billion people are mired in extreme poverty, living on less than $1 each per day.”
― Barry Asmus, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution

“Today, more than half of the people in our world live on less than $2 each per day, and one billion people are mired in extreme poverty, living on less than $1 each per day.”
― Barry Asmus, The Poverty of Nations: A Sustainable Solution