Weighing benefits against costs is the way most people make decisions — and the way most businesses make decisions, if they want to stay in business. Only in government is any benefit, however small, considered to be worth any cost, however large.

"Beneficial action" is to benefit all classes of sentient beings skillfully, that is, to care about their distant and near future and to help them by using skillful means. In ancient times, someone helped a caged tortoise; another took care of a sick sparrow. They did not expect a reward; they were moved to do so only for the sake of beneficial action.

Foolish people think that if they help others first, their own benefit will be lost, but this is not so. Beneficial action is an act of oneness, benefiting self and others together.

What is needed is a form of tax which not only spares the small man at the expense of his wealthier rival, but actually subsidizes the small man where subsidy is necessary.

The record was one of economy in government, of prudence and frugality, of spending the people’s money as carefully as if it had been his own, of having government do only what the people couldn’t do for themselves. That last point was very important,

Every action has its pleasures and its price.

Extraordinary benefits also accrue to the tiny majority with the guts to quit early and refocus their efforts on something new.

There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction. John F. Kennedy

Politeness and courtesy are a small price to pay for the goodwill of others.

The widespread enthusiasm for reducing government taxes and other impositions is not matched by a comparable enthusiasm for eliminating government programs — except programs that benefit other people.

But we also know that growth can bring enormous benefits to most segments in society, as it has in some of the more enlightened advanced industrial countries.

"Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress but they regard the things government does for others as socialism."

[<i>Address to National Press Club in Washington DC</i>, as quoted in <i>Freedom and Union</i> (April 1952)]

Government should do a few things, and do them right

If we take all this actions and if it turns out not be true, we have reduced pollution and have better ways to live, the downside is very small. The other way around, and we don’t act, and it turns out to be true, then we have betrayed future generations and we don’t have the right to do that.

Sometimes you can have the smallest role in the smallest production and still make a big impact.