Quotes from David Korten

My own experience in the third world was that even if people started to make more money, the cost of living and housing increased often faster than the wages.

If you look at the US economy over the last 15-20 years wages have been stagnating or even declining.

Wall Street sees a social fabric or social contract as inefficiencies, which need to be removed.

My claim is that we do not have a market economy, but a capitalist economy.

Money is not wealth. Money is a claim on wealth.

Money is a mechanism for control.

It will take some time before a politician will capture the imagination of the American people and have the vision and understanding to do what is necessary for a better future for the people of America and the world.

Europeans say they are proud of their social fabric, of strong rights for workers and the weak in society.

More and more surveys in the US are indicating a change in values taking place among consumers, who become more concerned about quality of life, food, health and the environment.

As long as you have a system that is based on the rational that if you are making money you are thereby making a contribution to society, these financial rogue practices will continue.

Capitalism and the market are presented as synonymous, but they are not. Capitalism is both the enemy of the market and democracy.

There is a huge shift taking place in the global awareness in the last 5 years with strong views about globalization and the power structures of major corporations.

If there is to be a human future, we must bring ourselves into balanced relationship with one another and the Earth.

It is interesting to note that the 200 richest people have more assets than the 2 billion poorest.

And each of these perspectives comes to the same conclusion, which is that our global economy is out of control and performing contrary to basic principles of market economics.

As long as you have a system that is based on the rational that if you are making money you are thereby making a contribution to society, these financial rogue practices will continue.

Europeans say they are proud of their social fabric, of strong rights for workers and the weak in society.

But in the past, US companies have been able to increase their profits through downsizing in the US, through colonizing other people's resources, and through the increase of globalization.

But we can also take the radical view that the test of an economy has to do with the extent to which it is providing everybody with a decent means of living.

There is no visible sign that the current politicians in the US are willing to see the need for change.

So, there is enormous instability in the global economy with a shift of winners and losers.

Global competition is about winners and losers.

In a world of increasing inequality, the legitimacy of institutions that give precedence to the property rights of 'the Haves' over the human rights of 'the Have Nots' is inevitably called into serious question.

If you look internationally over the last 50 years there have been improvements in the third world, but in the last 20 years the reverse has happened, with debt crises and increased poverty.