Capitalism Quotes - Page 32

• This argument has been codified in the twentieth century as meritocracy, in which those on top in the process of capitalist accumulation have merited their position.

  Immanuel Wallerstein

  Argument, Century, Process

  Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein (1995). “Capistalist Civilisation”, p.154, Verso

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• The way in which these two practices contain each other is that it has always been possible to use the one against the other: to use racism-sexism to prevent universalism from moving too far in the direction of egalitarianism; to use universalism to prevent racism-sexism from moving too far in the direction of a caste system that would inhibit the work force mobility so necessary for the capitalist accumulation process.

  Immanuel Wallerstein

  Moving, Two, Practice

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• When systems come to be far from points of equilibrium, they reach bifurcation points, wherein multiple, as opposed to unique, solutions, to instability become possible.

  Immanuel Wallerstein

  Unique, Bifurcation, Equilibrium

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• We seem to be in the midst of a process of cascading bifurcations that may last some 50 more years. We can be sure some new historical order will emerge. We cannot be sure what that order will be. Concretely, we may symbolize the first bifurcation as the effect of the world revolution of 1968 which continued up to and including the so-called collapse of the communisms in 1989, the social bifurcation.

  Immanuel Wallerstein

  Order, Years, Historical

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• One by one, these governments came undone, and were forced into IMF tutelage (and national illegitimacy) by the careening oil prices, the debt imbroglio, and falling terms of trade. The last of these governments to fall were the Communist regimes of eastern Europe, which have now gone the way of other Third World countries. The second in the cascade of bifurcations is thus symbolized by 1989.

  Immanuel Wallerstein

  Country, Fall, Oil

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• Are there still other possibilities? Of course there are. What is important to recognize is that all three historical options are really there, and the choice will depend on our collective world behavior over the next fifty years. Whichever option is chosen, it will not be the end of history, but in a real sense its beginning. The human social world is still very young in cosmological time. In 2050 or 2100, when we look back at capitalist civilization, what will we think?

  Immanuel Wallerstein

  Real, Thinking, Years

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• Humility is the distinguishing virtue of the believer in freedom; arrogance, of the paternalist.

  Milton Friedman

  Humility, Arrogance, Virtue

  Milton Friedman (2009). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.188, University of Chicago Press

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• There is still a tendency to regard any existing government intervention as desirable, to attribute all evils to the market, and to evaluate new proposals for government control in their ideal form, as they might work if run by able, disinterested men free from the pressure of special interest groups.

  Milton Friedman

  Running, Men, Evil

  Milton Friedman (2009). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.197, University of Chicago Press

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• We have the knowledge, resources, and capabilities to make global capitalism work in a more inclusive and socially responsible manner while retaining - indeed enhancing - its economic benefits.

  John Dunning

  Challenges, Inspire, Benefits

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• Giving is the vital impulse and moral center of capitalism.

  George Gilder

  Generosity, Giving, Moral

  George Gilder (2012). “Wealth and Poverty: A New Edition for the Twenty-First Century”, p.35, Regnery Publishing

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• Living capital, which has the special capacity to continuously regenerate itself, is ultimately the source of all real wealth. To destroy it for money, a simple number with no intrinsic value, is an act of collective insanity - which makes capitalism a mental, as well as physical pathology.

  David Korten

  Inspiring, Real, Simple

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• No system in history capitalism has been more relentless in battering down ancient and fragile cultures, devouring the resources of whole regions, pulverizing centuries-old practices in a matter of years, and standardizing the varieties of human experience.

  Michael Parenti

  Years, Practice, Culture

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• I spent thirty-three years in the Marines, most of my time being a hlgh class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.

  Smedley Butler

  Wall, Marine, Men

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• Just as the power of the feudal aristocracy had to be broken in order for capitalism to emerge fully, so must imperialism and capitalism in Third World nations be overcome if a new system is to prevail.

  Michael Parenti

  Order, Broken, Overcoming

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• The New Capitalism (arising from the global economic downturn)...those running our biggest commercial businesses will have to be more visible. They'll have to manifest a genuine understanding not only of the anxieties of their employees but of all taxpayers. Those chief executives who succeed will be those who imbue in their businesses very simple, commonsense standards of decency

  Robert Peston

  Running, Business, Simple

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• The idea was that those who direct the overall conspiracy could use the differences in those two so-called ideologies [Marxism/fascism/socialism v. democracy/capitalism] to enable them [the Illuminati] to divide larger and larger portions of the human race into opposing camps so that they could be armed and then brainwashed into fighting and destroying each other.

  Myron Coureval Fagan

  Fighting, Race, Order

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• I have a problem with capitalism, in it's extreme sense. At the same time communism, I have a problem with that, because every man must feel like a lord in his own manor.

  Jaz Coleman

  Men, Musician, Problem

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• Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.

  Alain de Benoist

  Class, Immigration, Firsts

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• If you bound the arms and legs of gold-medal swimmer Michael Phelps, weighed him down with chains, threw him in a pool and he sank, you wouldn't call it a 'failure of swimming.' So, when markets have been weighted down by inept and excessive regulation, why call this a 'failure of capitalism'?

  Peter Boettke

  Swimming, Gold, Legs

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• People think what's in the US today is capitalism. It's not even close to capitalism. Capitalism doesn't have a central bank, capitalism doesn't have taxes, it doesn't have regulations; capitalism is just voluntary transactions. What they have in the US today I call crapitalism. But it's sad that so many people are confused and they think, 'Oh that's free markets in the US', when it's one of the least free market countries on earth.

  Jeff Berwick

  Country, Confused, Thinking

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• Capitalism is a great idea in theory, but in practice it just doesn't work.

  Jeremy Hardy

  Practice, Ideas, Theory

  "The News Quiz", BBC Radio 4, November 2008.

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• If you can't afford the good food or if you can't afford health care or if you don't have a job or if your car is dangerous because you can't get it fixed and you DIE, you just lost the game-bzzzzz-thanks for playing extreme capitalism.

  Marc Maron

  Jobs, Games, Car

  Marc Maron (2013). “Attempting Normal”, p.165, Spiegel & Grau

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• The American People are witnessing the greatest lie that is cleverly orchestrated by President Obama and his whole administration. President Obama feeds people poison, giving them the idea that they are entitled to take from the wealthier who have lived and worked in a democracy that understands that capitalism is the only truth that keeps a nation healthy ... [Obama uses] a socialistic, Marxist teaching, and with it, he rapes this nation.

  Jon Voight

  Lying, Teaching, Ideas

  "Jon Voight: Obama ‘Rapes This Nation’", www.huffingtonpost.com. June 13, 2010.

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• If democracy were to be given any meaning, if it were to go beyond the limits of capitalism and nationalism, this would not come, if history were any guide, from the top. It would come through citizen's movements, educating, organizing, agitating, striking, boycotting, demonstrating, threatening those in power with disruption of the stability they needed.

  Howard Zinn

  Democracy, Citizens, Movement

  Howard Zinn (2015). “A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present”, p.674, Routledge

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• If you're going to dedicate your career to ranting about the excesses of American capitalism, you probably shouldn't weigh 450 pounds.

  Greg Giraldo

  Careers, Excess, Pounds

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