Van Jones Quotes

We need a better strategy for poor people...because what we're doing isn't working.

I will continue to find ways to help poor people find a job, get a job, and learn someday to own the job.

The war on poverty had not been undertaken at the request of the poor.

Let’s make the poor richer.

Nobody wants to remain poor. Those who are poor want to move away from poverty. That is why, all our programmes must be for the poor. All our schemes must serve the poor.

Government has the responsibility to provide the climate in which Americans, all Americans, have an opportunity for good jobs; and not only for good jobs, but an opportunity if they have the ability and the desire, to be owners and managers, to have a piece of the action, because if they have a piece of the action, then they believe in the system rather than fighting against it.

People don't need to become more aware of poverty - they need to know how to end it.

When you take the people who most need work and connect them with the work that most needs doing, you save. You save that young person’s life, you save a whole bunch of money, and you save the soul of this country when you invest and give people a chance, give people hope, give people opportunity.

Microfinance recognizes that poor people are remarkable reservoirs of energy and knowledge

The best social reform program in the world is a job.

To provide employment for the poor, and support for the indigent, is among the primary, and, at the same time, not least difficult cares of the public authority.

More people are on food stamps today because of Obamas policies than ever in history. I would like to be the best paycheck president in American history. ... And so Im prepared if the NAACP invites me, Ill go to their convention and talk about why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps.

We must win the war on poverty by enlisting the greatest weapon ever invented - free enterprise

The real solution to the problem of poverty consists in finding how to increase the employment and earning power of the poor.

I'm not asking for more entitlement programs; I'm asking for more enterprise.

I will go to the NAACP convention, and explain to the African-American community why they should demand paychecks instead of food stamps.

It would help the poor people who need jobs. Minimum wage is a mandate. We're against mandates so why should we have it? It would be very beneficial.

I want to help communities put welfare recipients to work right now, without delay, repairing schools, making their neighborhoods clean and safe, making them shine again. There's lots of work to be done out there. Our cities can find ways to put people to work and bring dignity and strength back to these families.

The most pro-business thing you can do is to help middle-class people thrive.

[Donald Trump] said it's against affordable health care for poor people and will not fight to raise wages for working poor people, that's pushing all of them in terms of policy.

The doctrine of thrift for the poor is dumb and cruel, like advising them to try and lift themselves by their bootstraps.

People can change their own lives, provided they have the right kind of institutional support. They're not asking for charity, charity is no solution to poverty. Poverty is the creation of opportunities like everybody else has, not the poor people, so bring them to the poor people, so that they can change their lives.

In the information age, the richest people are entrepreneurs. We may not become a king or queen, but we can all be entrepreneurs.

The best social program is a productive job for anyone who's willing to work.

Higher minimum wages, full-employment programs, early-childhood education: Those kinds of programs are, by design, universal, but by definition, because they are helping folks who are in the worst economic situations, are most likely to disproportionately impact and benefit African Americans. They also have the benefit of being sellable to a majority of the body politic.