Barney Frank Quotes

Unequal wealth distribution is a risk factor for inequality that must be attacked by policies.

Economic growth has the marvelous quality of stilling discontent while maintaining privilege

The middle class is not a fact of nature. It is partly the product of social engineering by the government.

Ironically, socialist countries do tend to have immediate short term decreases in poverty before collapsing.

Luxury may possibly contribute to give bread to the poor; but if there were no luxury, there would be no poor.

The government's War on Poverty has transformed poverty from a short-term misfortune into a career choice.

When inequality gets too extreme, then it becomes useless for growth, and it can even become bad because it tends to lead to high perpetuation of inequality over time and low mobility.

All legislative experiments in the way of making forcible distribution of the wealth produced in any country have failed.

I'm a capitalist. I believe in capitalism. But capitalism only works if you have safety nets to deal with people who are naturally left behind and brutalized by it.

Let some people get rich first.

You need some inequality to grow... but extreme inequality is not only useless but can be harmful to growth because it reduces mobility and can lead to political capture of our democratic institutions.

Inequality has risen to the point that it seems to me worthwhile for the U.S. to seriously consider taking the risk of making our economy more rewarding for more of the people.

Rising inequality is toxic to growth. High levels of inequality exclude people - both as innovators and customers - diminishing both innovation and demand.

Government has a role as well in what is referred to as redistributive justice.

The issue of wealth inequality is ... the great moral issue of our time.

An imbalance between the rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

The market economy does not automatically guarantee growth, social justice, or even economic efficiency; achieving those ends requires that government play an important role.

Government has a responsibility to the have-nots.

Welfare for the wealthy simply can no longer be afforded.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

The best social programs we've had in this country are those that have united the middle class and the poor.

So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings, goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury, and make sharper the contest between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent.

Income inequality is not a bad thing. Income inequality is a good thing.

A New Dealer regrets poverty and deplores the fact that it is necessary for society to slough off its misfits as an individual sheds his impurities and his diseases. But New Dealers believe that human want and human distress should be prevented or at least ameliorated.

For the good of Spain, I should like there to be rather fewer rich people and rather fewer poor.