Quotes About Inequality

Being an African-American, minority, or poor, you get in a tough situation and you don't get a fair shake.

We no longer have a government of, by, and for the people—representative democracy. We have government by plutocracy—the rule of the rich for the rich by the rich," Moyers

A criminal is undoubtedly a poor soul, who is punished for his poverty.

she said spontaneously that all well-to-do and rich people are inhuman. But was she human then? I had asked her, to which she gave no answer.

Literary works are not democracies. We hold this truth to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal. We may, but the country of Novels, Etc., doesn't. In that faraway place, no character is created equal. One or two of them get all the breaks; the rest exist to get them to the finish line.

to serve God means to act with justice. One cannot pray and offer sacrifice while ignoring the poor, the beggars at the gates. But more radical still: if you have more than you need, you are a thief, for what you "own" is stolen from those who do not have enough. You are a murderer, who lives on the abundance that has been taken from the mouths of the starving.

Most arguments about income inequality are based on static analysis.

An unedified palate is the irrepressible cloven foot of the upstart. The

You are one of the very men Christminster was intended for when the colleges were founded; a man with a passion for learning, but no money, or opportunities, or friends. But you were elbowed off the pavement by the millionaires' sons.

Ay, I'm a poor man—a poor gentleman, in fact: those I would be friends with, won't be friends with me; those who are willing to be friends with me, I am above being friends with.

As George Orwell might have said, with socialism all men are created equal, only some are more equal than others.

There is a reason why the top 1 percent of the income producers in America pays 37 percent of the entire federal income tax bill, why the top 5 percent pays 57 percent, the top 10 percent pay 68 percent, and the top 25 percent pay 85 percent. High-income producers are the only ones who earn enough money to do so! The bottom 50 percent of the income producers contributes less than 4 percent of the total tax bill.

There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people.

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

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.

Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions or property in geometrical progression as they rise. Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labor and live on. Letter to James Madison, October 28, 1785

I am conscious that an equal division of property is impracticable. But the consequences of this enormous inequality [in Europe] producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property,...[One] means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise.

As Wulkan entered the mess with his wrenches, he saw above the door the inscription, Für Juden und Hunde Eintritt Verboten - Entrance forbidden to Jews and dogs.

what was in those days called social order, namely, the preservation of the privileges of the few who happened to have any, at the expense of the swinish multitude who happened to have none, except that of working and being shot at for the benefit of their betters:

B?rbatul se îmbat? cu propria dorin??, iar femeia cere È™i aÈ™teapt? s? fie îmb?tat? de dorinÈ›a b?rbatului. De aici provine pentru noi obligaÈ›ia pasiunii, de aici decurge înfior?toarea ruÈ™ine a insensibilit??ii, a neputinÈ›ei de a trezi dorinÈ›a femeii.

Cracking the safe (excerpt) A poor man must swing For stealing a belt buckle But if a rich man steals a whole state He is acclaimed As statesmen of the year . . . Moral: the more you pile up ethical principles And duties and obligations To bring everyone in line The more you gather loot For a thief like Khang. By ethical argument And moral principle The greatest crimes are eventually shown To have been necessary, and, in fact, A signal benefit To mankind.

And what we've always been is. . .? Is living on borrowed time. Getting away cheap. Never caring about who's paying for it, who's starving somewhere else all jammed together so we can have cheap food, a house, a yard in the burbs. . .planetwide, more every day, the payback keeps gathering...

Clearly, only very unequal intellectual and moral standing could justify having equality imposed, whether the people want it or not, as Dworkin suggests, and only very unequal power would make it possible.

No-one is equal to anything. Even the same man is not equal to himself on different days.