Gordon Tullock: Goodness

Gordon Tullock was American economist. Explore interesting quotes on goodness.

Gordon Tullock: 12 quotes0 likes

“The modern state is largely a mechanism for transferring funds from one person to another. What we economists call public goods are provided by the state but are now only a part of it. The United States is not as far along in this procedure as many other countries, but in our case the federal government pays out in various types of transfers a significant percent of the amount it collects in taxes. Most of the European countries are even more dominated by the legacy of Bismarck.”

Public Goods, Redistribution and Rent Seeking (2005), Ch. 5 The legacy of Bismarck

“Clearly the present organization of the scientific community, cutting across the lines of nation states, bureaus, and almost all previously existing institutions, cannot be the result of conscious planning. There is, today, a good deal of organizational planning, but all of the instrumentalities which engage in this activity were founded after the development of science was well under way. Further, most of these organizations are parochial in nature, concerning themselves with only some special part of the scientific community like mathematical biophysics or Russian science. There is no general institution which has shaped or now can shape the development of science, only a mass of institutions which provide little more than liaison (and sometimes funds) for the scientific “producers.””

The Organization of Inquiry (1966) Ch 1. The Social Organization of Science

“A government does not, in general, just go about the world doing good. It has to be pushed into it.”

"Rent Seeking: The Problem of Definition"