Robert Reich Quotes

Liberty produces wealth, and wealth destroys liberty.

Where enough money calls the tune, the general public will not be heard.

You have six of the ten wealthiest counties in America surround Washington, D.C., and the poor and middle class are getting squeezed while people at the top and people with influence in government seem always to be doing better.

Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle.

This is what oligarchy looks like: Today, the top one-tenth of 1 percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. The top one-hundredth of 1 percent makes more than 40 percent of all campaign contributions. The billionaire class owns the political system and reaps the benefits from it.

When government does, occasionally, work, it works in an elitist fashion. That is, government is most easily manipulated by people who have money and power already. This is why government benefits usually go to people who don't need benefits from government. Government may make some environmental improvements, but these will be improvements for rich bird-watchers. And no one in government will remember that when poor people go bird-watching they do it at Kentucky Fried Chicken.

We live in a country where a small number of people have incredible wealth and power. America has more income and wealth inequality than any other major country.

All the power's in the hands of people rich enough to buy it.

In many respects, this country is becoming an oligarchy, with a tiny percentage of America owning the media, owning the country.

I think Republicans need to take income inequality more seriously. Not because I favor equality of outcomes. I do not. I think the Right is correct to stress merit and earned rewards, not handouts and forced equality. But I think what Republicans are blind to is that power corrupts.

Over the past few years special interests have had a larger and larger say over who gets what in America, and the voices of average citizens are being shut out.

What has destroyed every previous civilization has been the tendency to the unequal distribution of wealth and power.

The ability of the 1 percent to buy politicians and regulators is nothing new in American politics - just as inequality has been a permanent part of our economic system. This is true of virtually all political and economic systems.

The Occupy Wall Street protests are shining a national spotlight on the most powerful, dangerous and secretive economic and political force in America.

Who takes the blame: the leader who talks of poverty but lives in luxury, or the poor who choose a leader of that type?

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

The saddest part is that the public officials, both State and Federal, are in league with the capitalists in making the rich richer, and the poor poorer.

We have more billionaires than any country but the United States. And Putin can imprison any one of them at a moment’s notice. Do you think he is poor?

one kind of affluence: the outward sign of wealth for a small number, the mask of poverty for the majority, and a source of corruption for all.

In every country, and under every government, particular men may be too rich.

Equality of opportunity as we have known it no longer exists… we are steering a steady course toward economic oligarchy, if we are not there already”

Sadly, the system in this country is rigged in favor of wealthy elites who have purchased tremendous influence in our government.

High levels of economic inequality lead to imbalances in political power, as those at the top use their economic weight to shape our politics in ways that give them more economic power.

Few Americans other than the One Percent have a stake in the American economic and political system.

The concentration of wealth in the hands of the few threatens the ability of ordinary people to raise their voices and have a say over how our societies are run.