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    The rich adopt novelties and become accustomed to their use. This sets a fashion which others imitate. Once the richer classes have adopted a certain way of living, producers have an incentive to improve the methods of manufacture so that soon it is possible for the poorer classes to follow suit. Thus luxury furthers progress. Innovation "is the whim of an elite before it becomes a need of the public. The luxury today is the necessity of tomorrow." Luxury is the roadmaker of progress: it develops latent needs and makes people discontented. In so far as they think consistently, moralists who condemn luxury must recommend the comparatively desireless existence of the wild life roaming in the woods as the ultimate ideal of civilized life.

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Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not read more

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Nothing is so well calculated to produce a death-like torpor in the country as an extended system of taxation and read more

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Worry about being better; bigger will take care of itself. Think one customer at a time and take care of read more

Worry about being better; bigger will take care of itself. Think one customer at a time and take care of each one the best way you can.

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What the customer demands is last year's model, cheaper. To find out what the customer needs you have to understand read more

What the customer demands is last year's model, cheaper. To find out what the customer needs you have to understand what the customer is doing as well as he understands it. Then you build what he needs and you educate him to the fact that he needs it.

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  12  /  14  

A computer will not make a good manager out of a bad manager. It makes a good manager better faster read more

A computer will not make a good manager out of a bad manager. It makes a good manager better faster and a bad manager worse faster.

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It is impossible to understand the history of economic thought if one does not pay attention to the fact that read more

It is impossible to understand the history of economic thought if one does not pay attention to the fact that economics as such is a challenge to the conceit of those in power.

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  11  /  11  

The real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you lost all your money.

The real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you lost all your money.

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The boss must first distinguish between action information and status information. He must discipline himself not to act on problems read more

The boss must first distinguish between action information and status information. He must discipline himself not to act on problems his managers can solve, and never to act on problems when he is explicitly reviewing status. I once knew a boss who invariably picked up the phone to give orders before the end of the first paragraph in a status report. That response is guaranteed to squelch full disclosure.

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Money is something you got to make in case you don't die.

Money is something you got to make in case you don't die.

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