Joseph R. Biden Jr. Quotes

For the private sector to flourish, special privilege must give way to equal opportunity and equal risk for all.

The best thing that governments can do is get out of business. When governments interfere less, managers can do their jobs better.

Capitalism and democracy are the opposite of each other. Capitalism is a system that guarantees that a few are going to do very well, and everybody else is going to serve the few. Democracy means everybody has a seat at the table. Everybody.

Poverty is a solved problem - all they have to do is abolish taxes and regulations which cripple those intelligent, capable, and responsible men and women and destroy their productive capacity, then stand back and watch the economy boom.

America traditionally represents the greatest possibility of someone's going from nothing to something. Why? In theory, if not practice, the government stays out of the way and lets individuals take risks and reap rewards or accept the consequences of failure. We call this capitalism - or, at least, we used to.

We know that in our free market economy some will prosper more than others. What we don't accept is the idea that some folks won't even get a chance.

I have always opposed subsidies to private corporations.

The best industrial policy is competition.

Inequality is an inevitable product of capitalist activity, and expanding equality of opportunity only increases it—because some individuals and communities are simply better able than others to exploit the opportunities for development and advancement that capitalism affords.

So long as we maintain a substantial private sector, therefore socialists must logically applaud the accumulation of private profit.

Socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.

Surrounded by the evidence of their success, the wealthy come to believe that they are fundamentally better than other Americans and that working people deserve their declining fortunes. They trumpet meritocracy while ensuring that their children enjoy crushing advantages from birth. They have unprecedented access to politicians and use it to push policies that swell their wealth while defunding institutions, such as public education, that sustain opportunities for less-fortunate Americans.

The free enterprise system does not leave people behind.

If you get rich in the name of the poor, fine and dandy. The problem is when you earn it. If you earn the money in the private sector by starting a business and hiring a lot of people, that's when you become the enemy.

I don't believe we're the party of big business.

Capitalism, after all, is no fun when real failure becomes a possibility.

Prosperity comes from the private sector.

One of biggest lies in politics is the lie that Republicans are the party of big business. Big business does great with big government. Big business is very happy to climb in bed with big government. Republicans are and should be the party of small business and of entrepreneurs.

I'm not against business. I'm against big business in bed with big government.

The business of America shouldn't be subsidizing business.

Right now people seem to be very tentative about the positive benefits of capitalism.

We certainly want those at the top to do well, but if you base your entire presidency and your entire economic platform on helping them do even better, you're missing what makes the economy tick. Because not everyone has been as fortunate as Mitt Romney, you cannot base your whole approach on a life experience as rarified as his.

Inherited wealth, that is not what America is based upon.

I'm a capitalist. I'm not going to feel sympathetic to people leading a life they don't have to lead who, with effort, could maybe break out of it.

We are a mixed economy. We will remain a mixed economy. The public and private sector will continue to play a very important role. The private sector in our country has very ample scope and I am confident that India's entrepreneurs have the capacity, and the will to rise to the occasion.