Quotes About Inequality

Morning walks — rich man walks to digest food a poor to earn.

Men have a much better time of it than women; for one thing, they marry later; for another thing they die earlier.

We have so many people who can't see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one

He remembered the saying "Raise a son for your old years." He reasoned, Even though a boy is believed superior to a girl, his life may not be easy either. He will have to become a provider for his parents when he grows up. Selfish. How often parents have sons so that they can exploit them in the future. They prefer boys to girls mainly because sons will provide more, are worth more as capital.

These crimes were all motivated by economic jealousy. Either the Negroes in the area were more prosperous than the Whites, or the black workers would not let themselves be exploited thoroughly. In all cases, the principal culprits were never troubled, for the simple reason that they were always incited, encouraged, spurred on, then protected, by the politicians, financiers, and authorities, and above all, by the reactionary press.

When I feed the poor, they call me a saint. But when I ask why the poor are hungry, they call me a communist.

Breaking away from the illusion of market objectivity is the first step towards understanding capitalism.

Our story of bus drivers reveals the existence of the proverbial elephant in the room. It shows that the living standards of the huge majority of people in rich countries critically depend on the existence of the most draconian control over their labour markets – immigration control.

It shows that the living standards of the huge majority of people in rich countries critically depend on the existence of the most draconian control over their labour markets – immigration control. Despite this, immigration control is invisible to many and deliberately ignored by others, when they talk about the virtues of the free market.

I personally think that society is responsible for a very significant percentage of what I've earned. If you stick me down in the middle of Bangladesh or Peru or someplace, you'll find out how much this talent is going to produce in the wrong kind of soil. I will be struggling thirty years later. I work in a market system that happens to reward what I do very well – disproportionately well.

the chance of an average developing-country person being an entrepreneur is more than twice that for a developed-country person (30 per cent vs. 12.8 per cent).

Moreover, even if they are eventually weeded out, one-sided managerial compensation packages impose huge costs on the rest of the economy while they last. The workers have to be constantly squeezed through downward pressure on wages, casualization of employment and permanent downsizing, so that the managers can generate enough extra profits to distribute to the shareholders and keep them from raising issues with high executive pay (for more on this, see Thing 2).

Economics is (almost) about Life, the Universe and Everything.

E. REINERT How Rich Countries Became Rich, and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor

In the long run, free trade is a policy that is likely to condemn developing countries to specialize in sectors that offer low productivity growth and thus low growth in living standards.

Our story of bus drivers reveals the existence of the proverbial elephant in the room. It shows that the living standards of the huge majority of people in rich countries critically depend on the existence of the most draconian control over their labour markets – immigration control. Despite this, immigration control is invisible to many and deliberately ignored by others, when they talk about the virtues of the free market.

But I will never believe That I belong to the side with the guillotine. (You should eat the rich Even if that includes me.)

Racism consists in devaluing the humanity of certain people by dismissing it or playing it down (even when not intentional) at the same time as highlighting and playing up European philosophy, assuming it to be universal. It may be global, because it piggybacks on imperial expansion, but it certainly cannot be universal.

The West has been able to bring Afghanistan a much better health service, better education, better roads, a better economy, though some have benefited more some have benefited less from that economic well-being in Afghanistan.

the weak shall not fight only the strong are the chosen ones.

We were losers. We were baseball players. [Baseball executives] were businessmen. When you went into talk about a contract, they always had the upper hand. No matter if you hit 350 or 250, you were going to get what they wanted you to have.

Equality...is the result of human organization. We are not born equal.

The wretch who digs the mine for bread, or ploughs, that others may be fed, feels less fatigued than that decreed to him who cannot think or read.

Wie kann man lachen, richtig lachen, in solcher Welt mit sanierten Wirtschaftsführern, die tausend Fehler gemacht haben, und kleinen, entwürdigten, zertretenen Leuten, die stets ihr Bestes taten?