Alex Tabarrok Quotes, born Alexander Taghi Tabarrok on November 11, 1966, in Canada, is a Canadian-American economist, professor at George Mason University, and co-author of the influential economics blog Marginal Revolution with Tyler Cowen. Holding the Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center, he co-founded Marginal Revolution University, an online education platform. His work spans innovation policy, health economics, and law and economics, with books like Launching The Innovation Renaissance (2011). Recognized by David Brooks in 2012 as a leading right-leaning blogger, Tabarrok champions free markets and pragmatic solutions. These 15 quotes—sourced from his writings, interviews, and posts on X—reflect his insights on innovation, education, democracy, and economic growth, capturing his sharp and optimistic perspective.
15 Alex Tabarrok Quotes
- “Education is the key to the future: You’ve heard it a million times, and it’s not wrong. Educated people have higher wages and lower unemployment rates, and better-educated countries grow faster and innovate more than other countries. But going to college is not enough. You also have to study the right subjects.” (Launching The Innovation Renaissance, 2011)
- “The only way to thrive is to innovate. It’s that simple.” (Launching The Innovation Renaissance, 2011)
- “I utterly reject the view that the Third World is doomed to poverty and starvation. Not only is this wrong, I think this attitude verges on the immoral, like thinking that slavery is an unalterable facet of the human condition so why bother doing anything about it?” (Marginal Revolution, 2006)
- “Patents are like fertilizer. Applied wisely and sparingly, they can increase growth. But if you apply too many chemicals, or make patents too strong, then you can leach the land, making growth more difficult.” (BrainyQuote, n.d.)
- “The first thing you learn when you’re blogging is that people are one click away from leaving you. So you’ve got to get to the point, you can’t waste people’s time, you’ve got to give them some value for their limited attention span.” (BrainyQuote, n.d.)
- “Hollywood wants its heroes to be virtuous, but it defines virtue in a way that excludes any action that is self-interested. If virtue means putting others ahead of self, then it’s clear that most people, let alone most capitalists, aren’t very virtuous.” (BrainyQuote, n.d.)
- “Capitalists work hard to produce what consumers want. Artists who work too hard to produce what consumers want are often accused of selling out. Thus, even the languages of capitalism and art conflict: a firm that has ‘sold out’ has succeeded, but an artist that has ‘sold out’ has failed.” (BrainyQuote, n.d.)
- “Democracy is an experimental system. I like it when states try out new ideas. I think we ought to expand, not contract, our federalist system.” (Modern Principles: Microeconomics, 2010)
- “Going to college is neither necessary nor sufficient to be well-educated.” (Launching The Innovation Renaissance, 2011)
- “The term ‘natural resources’ confuses people. ‘Natural resources’ are not like a finite number of gifts under the Christmas tree. Nature is given, but resources are created.” (BrainyQuote, n.d.)
- “A bet is a tax on bullshit; and it is a just tax, tribute paid by the bullshitters to those with genuine knowledge.” (Marginal Revolution, 2013)
- “People used to think that more population was bad for growth. In this view, people are stomachs—they eat, leaving less for everyone else. But once we realize the importance of ideas in the economy, people become brains—they innovate, creating more for everyone else.” (Launching The Innovation Renaissance, 2011)
- “As far as wages are concerned, the only difference between immigration and birth is that birth takes longer.” (BrainyQuote, n.d.)
- “The obsessive focus on a college degree has served neither taxpayers nor students well. Only 35 percent of students starting a four-year degree program will graduate within four years, and less than 60 percent will graduate within six years.” (Launching The Innovation Renaissance, 2011)
- “It takes a lifetime to grow a forest and a day to burn it down.” (Post on X, @ATabarrok, 2025-04-14)
Alex Tabarrok’s quotes are a provocative blend of economic clarity, optimism, and intellectual rigor, urging readers to prioritize innovation, question conventional wisdom, and embrace dynamic systems for progress. Which one’s got you ready to rethink the future? Drop it in the comments and keep his ideas sparking change!