Peter Jones Quotes

As we say at Year Up all the time, investing in our young people is not just a matter of economic justice. It's good business sense.

Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks. If you don't have a job and you are not rich, blame yourself!

The best way poor people can come out of their poverty is to get on the global highway, not on some dirt side road.

We must create economic opportunity, build a culture of entrepreneurship, get people to take responsibility for improving their lives, rather than putting them in a position where they sit back in their poverty and blame others for it.

Our focus is on helping people develop the skills to find and keep a job. Instead of focusing on a war against poverty, we will focus on fighting for the poor among us by offering them hope and opportunity.

When I was first thinking about what would become Venture for America, I was trying to figure out how to solve a problem - that our top young people were being driven to roles that did not, to me, address the needs of our time. That VFA would be a non-profit just seemed like the most efficient way to solve the problem.

Look at the growing middle class in India. Small businesses are not just a source of jobs and prosperity: they are the driving force of social justice too.

I learned a good deal about economics, and about America, from the author of the Reagan tax reforms - the great Jack Kemp. What gave Jack that incredible enthusiasm was his belief in the possibilities of free people, in the power of free enterprise and strong communities to overcome poverty and despair. We need that same optimism right now.

You can be out of slavery and have the right to vote, but unless you have access to capital, industry and technology, you can't fulfill your dreams.

Our goals for this nation must be nothing less than to double the size of our economy and bring prosperity and jobs, ownership and equality of opportunity to all Americans, especially those living in our nation's pockets of poverty.

In America, the problems of poverty and low income, particularly for minorities, are disproportionately focused in the inner cities. Shining a spotlight on the businesses growing in these communities is proof that any community has the potential for entrepreneurship.

Haiti's economy cannot be built by and benefit just a privileged few. It must be built by and benefit all Haitians.

Educated and productive young people are needed to help lift their countries out of poverty and create a wealthier, more secure world.

I want to create economic opportunity at home and abroad. I don't want just one or the other. I want both.

The Opportunity Divide doesn't just keep our students disconnected from the mainstream economy; it prevents our businesses from growing.

There are many programs specifically aimed at helping people in poverty start a business.

Nothing is more important for young people than enhancing their life chances, liberating their potential and encouraging their contribution to a globally competitive and modern economy.

Good economic theory must give the people the chance to use their talents to build their own lives. We must get away from the traditional route where the rich will do the business and the poor will depend on private or public charity.

We may believe in the state's responsibility to alleviate the crushing poverty that afflicts 40 percent of Latin America's population, but most of us also affirm that there is no better cure for that poverty than a stronger, more globally integrated economy.

If Jeff Bezos and I had started Amazon.com in a poverty-stricken corner of Africa, there would have been no job creation because there would be no people to buy the stuff from Amazon.com. The difference here is the American middle class, which is by every measure the most extraordinary economic achievement in the history of the world.

The poorhouse is vanishing from among us.... We ... today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land.... We shall soon ... be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation.

No, Islam did not lift American blacks out of poverty; capitalism did that.

There should be whole-hearted, full commitment to remove poverty - only we are doing it.

When you talk about black entrepreneurship, you're talking about addressing the foundation of what's going on with our people when we don't have any financial power. Our basic needs aren't being met in a lot of cases, so there's no way we're going to be able to tap into our potential until we address those bottom-level base needs.

We want to open spaces for young people to thrive in this economy, and that is why we said... when government buys commodities and services, we must have some set aside for young people.