Joseph Stiglitz Quotes

We're all complicit in the things we may be trying to oppose. I'm complicit in the things that I'm trying to oppose.

And understand: class differences will not save you.

I'm far from immune to the American, perhaps historically male, prejudice toward practical and physical competence; I hope I've also considered that prejudice enough to have some distance from it.

America is a fundamentally good country. We have good people with good values who want to do the right thing. But the structures of power that exist are working to their own ends to extend their capability at the expense of the freedom of all publics.

Philosophers are men hired by the well-to-do to prove that everything is all right.

There are two Americas. One which influences government and economic policy and the other which must live with the results.

However badly off a community may be at any given time, someone profits while the community remains in its present conditions. Someone owes his status to retention of the present conditions. Someone's plans and investment in the future depend on everything remaining the same.

The economic and technical capabilities of the established societies are sufficiently vast to allow for adjustments and concessions to the underdog.

… the unjust institutions which work so much misery and suffering to the masses have their root in governments, and owe their whole existence to the power derived from government.

One big part of the reason we have so much inequality is that the top 1 percent wants it that way.

We live in a system that espouses merit, equality, and a level playing field, but exalts those with wealth, power, and celebrity, however gained.

Some members of the ruling class are making a concerted effort to expand the wealth gap.

A lot of people think that intersectionality is only about identity. But it's also about how race and gender are structured in particular workforces.

In my life, I've been able to really examine society in a way most people who aren't outsiders don't get a chance to do.

The reality is, if you were fortunate to be born to rich parents, you have a better chance of succeeding in life. And that's wrong.

Some of the most common pitfalls I see occur when authors don't check their privilege. Billions are living in a personal apocalypse right this second, so a little research and empathy can go a long way toward developing a convincing world.

It's hard for men sometimes to talk about feminism, just as it's hard for people who aren't from ethnic minorities to talk about racial prejudice. It's a difficult conversation to have, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't have it.

What matters is that the majority of American people have become complacent in a senseless injustice that occurs all around them. What matters is that most American politicians have become more easily swayed by money than by the people who voted them into office.

Mr. Trump has tapped into the frustrations of many Americans who feel the effects of a dismal economy and believe the political system is rigged and owned by the establishment.

Intersectionality is not easy. It's not as though the existing frameworks that we have - from our culture, our politics, or our law - automatically lead people to being conversant and literate in intersectionality.

In every revolution, there are winners and losers. Every dystopia is a utopia for somebody else. It just depends where you are. Are you in the class that benefits, or are you in the class that's not?

There once was this powerful, both capital and political, class who cared about supporting and affirming a solid middle class in this country.

There's always been a nasty strain of class prejudice ingrained in the condemnation of football's 'undeserving rich,' as if the working class is uniquely susceptible to being corrupted by money, and as if they deserve their wealth less than those born to it.

Even in my genre, cookery, just look who gets on the television. Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Nigel Slater. All very nice men. All white middleflclass men.

Unfortunately, oftentimes people hire and give opportunities to people that look like them. They don't realize how much their own internal lives or privilege gets in the way of looking for people outside of the traditional spaces where they always find people.