George Soros Quotes

Taxes aren't the way to go. They'd strangle the economy; you wouldn't create the wealth. And nothing squanders money as well as a government. What we need is to encourage rich people to give.

There shouldn't be budget problems. There is so much money that goes untapped. If every athlete gave 5% of what they earned, there wouldn't be any budget problems.

Very few governments have the money to meet the needs of their people….The private sector has most of the resources.

Who's going to do a better job of spending your money? You or the government?

Your federal government needs your money so that it can perform vital services for you that you would not think up yourself in a million years.

The growing inequality of wealth and income distribution is both a moral and economic problem. If the wealthy are unwilling to pay more taxes, then this is going to lead to spending cuts. And if you put off the table things like national defense, then you're going to end up cutting more and more out of programs that aid the poor. So, I think there are consequences to this idea that tolerance for inequality requires us to - to just do nothing to make the wealthy contribute a higher share of resources to fund the government.

The larger the slice taken by government, the smaller the cake available for everyone.

The government and its chiefs do not have the powers of the mythical Santa Claus. They cannot spend except by taking out of the pockets of some people for the benefit of others.

The truth is that the government cannot give if it does not take from somebody...It is not in the power of the government to make everybody more prosperous.

And I just think that we're at a point in our economic life here in our state - and - and, candidly, across the country, where increased taxes is just the wrong way to go. The people of our state are not convinced that state government, county government, local government has done all they can with the money we already give them, rather than the money that we have...

The people in Washington are getting rich with our money. Under President Barack Obama, the federal government swelled to record size, and it took more and more of our money to pay for it. Who benefitted? Not Missouri farmers or workers.

Provision of facilities to the masses is linked with the collection of taxes.

I was announcing to the public, in 2006, that I'd be leaving Microsoft in a couple of years and focusing full-time on the foundation. That was the time at which we went back to New York and Warren [Buffett] announced these gifts to a number of foundations, with a very high percentage of it going to us and basically doubling our capacity.

Government has no money of its own. All it does is take resources from one group and given them to another.

When corporations get special handouts from the government, subsidies and tax breaks, it costs you. It means you have to pay more in taxes to make up for these hidden expenses, and government has less money for good schools and roads, Medicare and national defense and everything else you need.

I gave to a [Hillary Clinton ]foundation that, frankly, that foundation is supposed to do good. I didn't know her money would be used on private jets going all over the world.

You know it's funny, when it rains it pours they got money for wars, but can't feed the poor.

In the liberal imagination, the money is the government's by default, and the president and Congress determine through the tax code how much to give back to the people.

In America, we are just moving the chairs around and spending huge amounts of money rather than having them go in making people's lives better.

Government has no wealth of its own. Before it gives anything to anyone, it must take from those who produced it.

It is a good thing that we do not get as much government as we pay for.

Irresponsibility breeds irresponsibility. The finances of government are so central. You'd think that would be pretty obvious.

I think the foundation at Berkshire [Buffett's stake in Berkshirewill pass to the Buffett Foundation upon his death] will be a plus because there will be a continuation of the culture. We'd still take in fine businesses run by people who love them.

The government has nothing to give to anybody that it doesn't first take from someone else.

We simply cannot afford to give the reigns of government so someone who will double down on trickle down