The reason that people are poor is because they lack access to productive employment. If a farmer happened to own a piece of land but never grew anything on it, he would starve. But if he were to work the farm and produce food he would be able to eat. And if extra food is produced it can be traded for other things. So the key to escaping poverty is productivity and the key to increasing productivity is capital. Economist, investment advisor, author and commentator, Peter Schiff |
Freedom causes an economy to prosper. People are inherently motivated to pursue their own interests by providing products and services that others want at a price they can afford. And as people earn profits and save money they are able to use these funds to more effectively and efficiently do so. But when a government intervenes in an economy, despite its best intentions, the regulations and taxes which it imposes impedes the ability and willingness of these people to start businesses and employ workers. Economist, investment advisor, author and commentator, Peter Schiff |
A minimum wage law hurts the poorest and least skilled the most because its deprives them of employment opportunities. If a young person, for example, doesn't have any skills to justify being paid the minimum wage rate, he or she will have a difficult time landing a first job. And when it is more difficult to find a first job it will be more difficult to find a second, third or fourth job, which traps a person in poverty. Economist, investment advisor, author and commentator, Peter Schiff |
The government's role in an economy should be restricted to enforcing certain ground rules which facilitate commerce, including, but not limited to, enforcing contracts and protecting private property rights. Economist, investment advisor, author and commentator, Peter Schiff |
Labor unions tend to operate in a very short sighted manner, most often by attempting to maximize the pay and benefits of their members in the short term even as it ends up costing their jobs in the long term by bankrupting the employers. But while current employees might collectively benefit in the short run, the high cost of employing workers results in fewer employment opportunities for those who are unemployed. Economist, investment advisor, author and commentator, Peter Schiff |
An economy suffers when money is taken from a rich person and sent to the government because this is the very money that the rich would have otherwise used to fund the growth of their own or other people's businesses which in turn creates jobs for a population. The premise behind taxing the rich is that society as a whole will be better off when this money is transferred into the hands of the government but there is absolutely no historical data to suggest that this is true. All of the available evidence shows the opposite to be true - that private individuals and businesses are far more effective at creating businesses and jobs with their own money than government is. Economist, investment advisor, author and commentator, Peter Schiff |
The absolute worst type of tax is an income tax because, in effect, it's a tax on people for working, producing and investing, based not on what they take out of an economy, but what they put into it. The problem with this is twofold: Firstly, taxes levied against a particular behavior end up discouraging that behavior, in this case, working, producing and investing. Secondly, because an income tax makes no distinction between, for example, income used to buy luxury goods and income saved and invested in starting or growing a business, it naturally reduces the amount of money which is available to be invested. The best alternative is to tax people based on what they spend, in the form of sales taxes which are levied against goods that individuals consume. Not only is this better for an economy, it's easy to implement because businesses - who already keep records - can simply pass on the cost directly to consumers. Economist, investment advisor, author and commentator, Peter Schiff |
The reason that conservatives and liberals disagree is because liberals judge their policies by their intentions while conservatives look at their outcomes. Economist, investment advisor, author and commentator, Peter Schiff |