Abhijit Banerjee Quotes

Democracy can't be just for billionaires and corporations.

Somehow, failures in the public sector are always judged as systematic. The private sector thus exists to ride to the rescue - and their failures are only judged anomalies. A pretty nice arrangement for investors. The only people who suffer are the citizens.

The good news, to relieve all this gloom, is that a democracy is inherently self-correcting. Here, the people are sovereign. Inept political leaders can be replaced. Foolish policies can be changed. Disastrous mistakes can be reversed.

We always hear about the rights of democracy, but the major responsibility of it is participation.

Capitalism unchecked is not a democratic system.

As someone who worked hard for a Labour victory in the 90s, do I regret it? Not really. It was bound to happen. And it'll happen with the next government, and the one after it. Because all governments serve us. They serve the filth.

The American public should simply accept no distractions. In our democracy, it is our duty to hold our elected leaders accountable. We do it at the ballot box.

Capitalism and democracy are the opposite of each other. Capitalism is a system that guarantees that a few are going to do very well, and everybody else is going to serve the few. Democracy means everybody has a seat at the table. Everybody.

My conscience does not permit me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless it is within a democratic framework.

If the machinery for distribution in the present economic system of the world is incapable of properly distributing the productive wealth of nations, then that system is false and must be altered.

The Declaration of Independence says when government fails, the people have the right to replace it. Well, New York State government has failed and the people have the right, indeed the people have the the people have the obligation, to act.

No nation can claim, 'We are an uncorrupt nation, therefore we will tell you what the morals of democracy are.'

For a free country to continue thriving, there have to be regular reforms, because any society, any economy that stays in place, you're going to see repeated attempts to exploit the openings for twisting policy to the advantage of those who already have wealth and power.

I am not alone in thinking that we are at a tipping point ecologically and morally and politically. Democracy cannot survive without a vibrant middle class, yet the policies of one of the parties has been committed to wiping it out for 30 years.

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

You need just the right amount of protection for the rich under democracy: too little and the elite will not agree to democracy; too much and the poor will go ahead and have the revolution...

I ask every God-fearing citizen to save Boston from the banks and the railroads.

Many will see [globalization] as little more than a mask used by certain economic elites for taking away the voice of the individual citizen.

If experience teaches us anything it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

Capitalism has put democracy in trouble, because capitalism has tried to persuade us that being a private consumer is enough. That a citizen is nothing more than a consumer

Capitalism is very undemocratic. Capitalism gives you power according to your wealth while democracy gives you power according to your existence.

It is the aim of public life to arrange that all forms of power are entrusted, so far as possible, to men who effectively consent to be bound by the obligation towards all human beings which lies upon everyone, and who understand the obligation.

The economic system ian'r ao muxh fundamentally rigged as the populists contend, as it is fundamentally unalterably, never-to-be-the-same-again changed.

Every year, the World Economic Forum decides on a theme for its meeting of the world's elite in Davos, Switzerland. Usually, it's highfalutin nonsense that no one understands and everyone ignores.

They have acted like carnivores who used the world to enrich only themselves, and whether it's the election of Donald Trump, or Brexit, the elites have realized that the people have stopped listening to them, that the people want to determine their futures and, in a perfectly democratic framework, regain control of their destiny.