Ray Charles Quotes

More than ever before, Americans are suffering from back problems: back taxes, back rent, back auto payments.

Very few people can afford to be poor.

The economics of life is against the family.

It's a little hard to go out there and spend your money on a home, car, or goods and services if your wages are being garnished to make debt collectors rich.

Pressure is a man that is wondering how he's going to feed his five kids today.

The middle income families in America have been crushed over the last four years.

New York was always more expensive than any other place in the United States, but you could live in New York - and by New York, I mean Manhattan. Brooklyn was the borough of grandparents. We didn't live well. We lived in these horrible places. But you could live in New York. And you didn't have to think about money every second.

As a mother, I - like everyone else - have to fill my gas tank in my car. I have to feed my family. I have to be able to make sure that I can keep a roof over their heads and, with things escalating the way they are, it's very difficult. People are losing their homes.

The trouble with being poor is that it takes up all your time.

People are trying to figure out how to pay bills and make ends meet. They don't want to turn on the TV and say, 'What is this crap?'

You and I can be busy, and we take a vacation from work. You can't take a break from being poor. You can't say, 'Hey I've had enough of worrying about money, I'm just going to be rich for a couple of weeks until I've recovered.'

I know how hard it is to send two kids to college when you ain't got nothing. I know people may not think of me in that way, but this business gives you ups and downs.

Relationships and the stress of the world going down, it puts a lot of stress on people, you know financially.

It's very hard for me to get a new car. It's really hard for me to get a new house. It's really hard for me to move on from the things that give me stability.

We always had money problems. Sometimes I would lie awake at night wondering how to pay the rent.

I've had nonstop financial problems my whole adult life. It's always been a constant balance, year to year: 'Where's the time? Where's the money?'

The box got bigger, the outside, the buildings. And all that we were doing. I had to raise about $1 million every two days just to stay alive.

Ever since going up to university, I have accumulated new debt, and new means of becoming indebted.

The farmers are older; they are under financial stress to produce more margins, yet they keep getting less.

I guess if you're lucky enough not to have to pay your rent, then you or I take much more seriously the kind of work that I do, what it takes for me to leave two teenagers of my own and six stepchildren and a husband and four grandchildren.

Worrying about bills, food, or other problems leaves less capacity to think ahead or to exert self-discipline. So, poverty imposes a mental tax.

Constantly having to think about money is not nice. People used to say, 'Being rich doesn't make you happy'. And I'd think, 'I've got no electricity, nothing - tell that to my empty fridge'.

When we have financial struggles, kids are so much more aware of things than we want them to be.

There's a foot race between gas bills and paychecks.

Everyone is trying to make ends meet, and even if you aren't, no one wants to get ripped off.