Economic Inequality Quotes

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  An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

  Plutarch

  Freedom, Tyrants, Political

  "When Inequality Isn't" by John Mauldin, www.forbes.com. March 29, 2014.

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  A nation will not survive morally or economically when so few have so much and so many have so little.

  Bernie Sanders

  Littles, Inequality, Nations

  "Commentary: Yes, This Campaign Can Get Even More Spectacular". www.chicagotribune.com. January 22, 2016.

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• The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Money, History, Giving

  Second Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1937

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• The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.

  Aristotle

  Philosophical, Equality, Egalitarianism

  219 Copy quote

• Human rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities.

  Pope Francis

  Rights, Terrorism, Unfair

  "Pope Francis: the humble pontiff with practical approach to poverty" by Mark Rice-Oxley, www.theguardian.com. March 13, 2013.

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• The concern that I have is that, as wealth continues to concentrate in the hands of a few, economic inequality grows, and power also becomes more unequal.

  Jane Mayer

  Hands, Wealth, Concern

  Source: www.macleans.ca

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• In our society it is murder, psychologically, to deprive a man of a job or an income. You are in substance saying to that man that he has no right to exist. You are in a real way depriving him of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, denying in his case the very creed of his society.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Jobs, Real, Men

  Martin Luther King, Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1989). “The trumpet of conscience”, HarperCollins

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  We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Wisdom, Country, Power

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• Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Animal, Political

  Letter to Colonel Edward Carrington, 16 January 1787

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• As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce.

  Adam Smith

  Country, Men, Land

  Adam Smith (1814). “An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. With notes, and an additional vol., by D. Buchanan”, p.80

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• Everyone has a right to a job, everyone has a right to an education, everyone has a right to health care, everyone has a right to retirement security, everyone has a right to housing, and everyone has a right to peace.

  Dennis Kucinich

  Retirement, Jobs, Care

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• We want a better America, an America that will give its citizens, first of all, a higher and higher standard of living so that no child will cry for food in the midst of plenty.

  Sidney Hillman

  Children, Struggle, America

  The New Republic, Volume 115, p. 379, 1946.

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• What good does it do to sit at the counter when you cannot afford a hamburger?

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Struggle, Hamburgers, Doe

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• I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.

  Mother Jones

  Men, Shoes, United States

  "Autobiography of Mother Jones" by Mary Harris Jones, edited by Mary Field Parton, (p. 46), 2004.

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• Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.

  Pope Francis

  Justice, People, Growth

  "The Joy of the Gospel: Evangelii Gaudium". Book by Pope Francis, w2.vatican.va. November 26, 2013.

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• Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?

  Pope Francis

  Elderly, Order, Two

  Pope Francis (2014). “The Joy of the Gospel”, p.21, BookBaby

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• I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth will starve in the process.

  Benjamin Harrison

  Money, Inspirational Life, Men

  "Rain Still Follows Him: The President's Vermont Trip Marked by Storms". Speech in Rutland, Vermont, reported in The New York Times, August 29, 1891 issue p. 5,

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• What is economics? A science invented by the upper class in order to acquire the fruits of the labor of the underclass

  August Strindberg

  Order, Class, Fruit

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• The essential point here is that all people with small, insecure incomes are in the same boat and ought to be fighting on the same side. Probably we could do with a little less talk about' capitalist' and 'proletarian' and a little more about the robbers and the robbed.

  George Orwell

  Fighting, Insecure, People

  George Orwell (2016). “The Road to Wigan Pier”, p.150, Jester House Publishing

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• How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion.

  Pope Francis

  Elderly, Two, News

  Pope Francis (2014). “The Joy of the Gospel”, p.21, BookBaby

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• Landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed.

  Karl Marx

  Love, Philosophical, Men

  Karl Marx (2007). “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844”, p.52, Courier Corporation

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• Man must choose whether to be rich in things or in the freedom to use them.

  Ivan Illich

  Men, Use, Rich

  Deschooling Society (1971) ch. 4

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• The ability of the 1 percent to buy politicians and regulators is nothing new in American politics - just as inequality has been a permanent part of our economic system. This is true of virtually all political and economic systems.

  Eric Alterman

  Political, Politician, Economic Systems

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• People who have to fight for their living and are not afraid to die for it are higher persons than those who, stationed high, are too fat to dare to die.

  Laozi

  Fighting, People, Fats

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• Every man is dishonest who lives upon the labor of others, no matter if he occupies a throne.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Men, Political, Thrones

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.236, Library of Alexandria

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