Quotes About Inequality

Only the rich, he said not a little bitterly, can afford to act like income does not matter.

Then again, I don't suppose the very poor care much about the doings of the rich, either. The gulf is too wide. Not many have been on both sides of it, as we have.

England of 1840 expected its young, affluent women to be literate and culturally astute, but it provided no real occupation for women with energy and vision. Fields of endeavor that were open to energetic, ambitious men—the military, finance, law, medicine, manufacture—were effectively closed to women.

When we believe there is not enough, that resources are scarce, then we accept that some will have what they need and some will not. We rationalize that someone is destined to end up with the short end of the stick.

What most upset her, was the widespread use of slave labor. ...It is true Republicanism that drives the slaves half fed, and destitute of clothing...to labor...while the owner walks about idle...white men considered idleness a virtue even if they owned only one slave or none. No white man would do work considered too menial for his race.

It was fundamental to Plato, and to the mainstream of classical Greek philosophy after him, that men are created unequal; not merely in the superficial sense of inequality in physique, wealth or social position, but unequal in their souls, morally unequal. A few men are potentially capable of completely rational behaviour, and hence of correct moral judgment; most men are not.

You were useful... But just because you're useful to the wealthy doesn't mean they'll reward you. It just means they'll use you.

Que afinal o que importa não é haver gente com fome porque assim como assim ainda há muita gente que come (Pastelaria, Mário Cesariny)

Wages, in real terms, have been stagnant since the 1970s.

Fascism feeds on social and economic grievances, including the belief that the people over there are receiving better treatment than they deserve while I'm not getting what I'm owed. It seems today that almost everyone has a grievance:

The world is an unjust place.

A bloated capitalist, like 'im, what do hexploit us poor dawgs, ought to be lickidated. It was Mr. Toller undoubtedly who was saying that ; and Red recognized his own oratorical expression, liquidated, the meaning of which, for the word had reached him from Bristol, had always puzzled him—though this had not prevented him from using it in his orations.

These are the little losers in the bunny derby, but they lose on a different route than the Mariannes, or the ones you see in the supermarket on the nights when they double the green stamps, coming in junk cars, plodding the bright aisles, snarling at their cross sleepy kids.

There is inherited wealth in this country and also inherited poverty.

War and hunger and ignorance and despair know no religious barriers.

They looked down on her; and she looked up through them.

Stop thinking about class, she'd say. Like a rich man telling a poor man to stop thinking about money.

O s?-mi r?spunzi: "Pentru c? existau copii care mureau de foame în vreme ce tu cântai în soare". Ar trebui deci s? nu mai avem palate, s? nu mai avem gusturi rafinate, bucurii de tot felul, s? nu mai d?m curs imaginaÈ›iei. Lumea trebuie s? aib? un scop ascendent c?tre bucurii mai înalte, fericire mai mult? pentru membrii societ??ii.

FALDER. It's easy enough to put a face on it, sir, when you're independent. Try it when you're down like me. They talk about giving you your deserts. Well, I think I've had just a bit over.

Today, nearly everyone is much better off. Yet the rackety existence of the majority is as far removed from the security enjoyed by the truly wealthy as it was in Victorian times.(...) The wealthy can pass their lives without contact with the rest of society. So long as they do not pose a threat to the reach, the poor can be left to their own devices. Social democracy has been replaced by the oligarchy of the rich as part of the price of peace.

Since most law-abiding citizens had no contact with the parole system, it was not a priority with the state legislatures. And since most of the state's prisoners were either poor or black, and unable to use the system to their advantage, it was easy to hit them with harsh sentences and keep them locked up. But for an inmate with a few connections and some cash, the parole system was a marvelous labyrinth of contradictory laws that allowed the Parole Board to pass out favors.

Percy had never owned a ball or a glove or a bat, had never played catch with his dad, had never dreamed of beating the Yankee. In fact he'd probably never dreamed of leaving the cotton patch. That thought was almost overwhelming.

In white America, prisons are good places where bad men pay for their crimes. In black America, they are too often used as warehouses to keep minorities off the streets.

It has taken me years to convince her that there are thousands of innocent people locked away.