Robert Solow: Inaction Has it’s Costs
on Tuesday, February 16, 2016Robert Solow Money Quotation saying the costs of taking no action could be greater than attempting to solve poverty for kids. Robert Solow said:
“I suspect that in fact our wallets exceed our will, but in any event this concern for the drain on our resources completely misses the other side of the equation: Inaction has its costs too” — Robert Solow
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In this quote, Robert Solow is addressing concerns about the costs of taking action versus the costs of inaction. Specifically, he is suggesting that while concerns over draining resources through action are valid, “inaction has its costs too” which are often overlooked.
Solow seems to be arguing that simply focusing on the direct costs of a given action or policy ignores the potential longer-term costs that could result from doing nothing. By stating that “our wallets exceed our will”, he implies that sometimes fears over short-term spending outweigh considerations of the benefits action could provide.
In essence, Solow is advocating for a balanced perspective that takes into account both the costs of acting and the costs of not acting when evaluating policy choices, rather than an overly narrow focus only on the monetary costs of the immediate action being proposed. Fully assessing policy options requires considering both sides of the equation.