David Korten Quotes

Opposition will act as an outward conscience and prevent the abuse of power.

Ownership of the means of production was an obsession to be abandoned. What mattered was the state’s control over the economy.

Just as any revolution eats its children, unchecked market fundamentalism can devour the social capital essential for the long-term dynamism of capitalism itself.

If people cannot limit government they will not for long be free.

We shall never prevent the abuse of power if we are not prepared to limit power in a way which occasionally may prevent its use for desirable purposes.

Including the value of natural resources and our social capital in national accounting is a vital step to achieve economic growth that is equitable and sustainable.

This is a steady, ceaseless process, impossible to contain as long as the economy driven by the endless accumulation of capital. The system may prolong its life by slowing down some of the activities which are wearing it out, but death always looms somewhere on the horizon.

The broad liberal objective is a balanced and flexible "mixed economy," thus seeking to occupy that middle ground between capitalism and socialism whose viability has so long been denied by both capitalists and socialists.

Donald [Trump] has had a long career of using great wealth and power trying to bully others.

I work to promote the idea of sustainable capitalism driven by long-term considerations rather than quarterly profits, which seeks to better people's lives and the planet rather than destroy them.

An economic system which can only expand or expire must be false to all that is human.

In some ways you still have to buy your freedom, but that's because you live in a social structure that's organized around capital, and capital does equate with a certain kind of freedom, especially if you can start to generate capital on your own.

I had this radical idea that the police should obey the law. My view was that any human system without adequate checks and balances will tend towards corruption and abuse. That's why you have meat inspectors. Not because you hate butchers, but because of an understanding of human nature.

Democracy and markets are both fundamental building blocks for a decent society. But they clash at a fundamental level. We need to balance them.

As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world’s problems or, for that matter, to any problems.

Profit margins are probably the most mean-reverting series in finance, and if profit margins do not mean-revert, then something has gone badly wrong with capitalism. If high profits do not attract competition, there is something wrong with the system and it is not functioning properly.

As long as your abuser has you scared, you will stay in the cycle of abuse. Thinking of solutions helps you to escape.

The pope is encouraging immigrants to come here. He's encouraging us to let them come here. He's encouraging us to stop any efforts whatsoever to prevent them from coming here. Why, if capitalism's so bad? 'Cause if he gets what he wants and everybody else along with him, we're not gonna be capitalists very much long. Here's what the pope said about Trump.

Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike ...We wizards have mistreated and abused our fellows for too long, and we are now reaping our reward.

The degradation, the wrongs, the vices, that grow out of slavery, are more than I can describe. They are greater than you would willingly believe.

Whenever society begins to create policies and laws rooted in fear and anger, there will be abuse and injustice.

Labor unions have a long history of benefitting all workers, even those who are not members of unions, because everyone's wages go up. If we don't increase membership - and membership in labor unions is going down because of the attacks against organized labor - it's something every single American, whether they're officially in a union or not, should be concerned about. It's a spiral. It's a weakening of the middle class and our economy can't sustain that.

Shouldn't the long-term goal of any society be complete unemployment?

While communism is the control of business by government, fascism is the control of government by business.

The entire socioeconomic system is based on production for profit and a growth imperative that cannot be sustained.