Michael Che Quotes

And I am interested in the fact that class is very much a factor in America, even though it's not supposed to be.

The prime culprit in causing contemporary social inequality seems to be merit.

A meritocracy increases inequality --- by its very nature, it has to.

In this respect, higher education is now causing most of the growing inequality and strengthening class structure of the United States.

The financial rewards of economic change have accrued disproportionately to the most talented and well-educated members of society.

We're all about pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, et cetera - I think that's a harmful mythology, that the choices that we make and the things that we do in our lives are not connected to anything else. So I'd like to help to debunk that.

That the actual practice of meritocracy mostly involves a strenuous quest to avoid any kind of downward mobility, for oneself or for one's kids, is something every upper-class American understands deep in his or her highly educated bones.

The rich do not want people who come from poor families to rise to the highest position in the country.

Inequality is partly a marker of success.

I believe that Britain is becoming more class-conscious, and I quake at the very idea of Old Etonians ruling the world again.

Greater inequality in Europe has made people less happy.

Outside of the family, education is the greatest determinant of social mobility.

Class still matters in Britain today.

It's an irony that growing inequality could mean more money for philanthropy. In the U.S., quite a few of the ultra-rich have taken to heart the 19th century industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie's comment that it's a disgrace to die wealthy.

And if we don't have a test, what we may end up doing is going back to what this country has done before. We could use social class and we still do, but in the 50s, it was, do you have the right last name and are your parents in privileged positions?

When people get rich, they cut themselves off from the context that has earned them these riches - the context of the common men. They forget they are part of society.

Colour is not the issue in America; class is.

I couldn't feel good about myself hanging out in Armani clothes when my girlfriend can't even pay her heating bill. I'd feel foul and I'd be embarrassed.

I went off to a school with the children of CEOs and diplomats. To be able to be at home with that group of people and at home with the desperately poor has been good for me in preparation for my coming to Washington.

Remember, until the 1970s, the spread of democracy has always been accompanied by the decline of inequality. The more democratic our societies have been, the more equal they have been becoming. Now we have the reverse tendency. The spread of democracy now is very much accompanied by the increase in inequality.

Those who are able to climb up the ladder will find ways to pull it up after them, or selectively lower it down to allow their friends, allies, and kin to scramble up. In other words: 'Who says meritocracy says oligarchy.'

Class structures are a luxury that we cannot afford.

We know that in our free market economy some will prosper more than others. What we don't accept is the idea that some folks won't even get a chance.

Rarely do we stop and consider whether the most prestigious of institutions is always in our best interest.

Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us but not all of us.