William Greider Quotes

In a world of increasing inequality, the legitimacy of institutions that give precedence to the property rights of 'the Haves' over the human rights of 'the Have Nots' is inevitably called into serious question.

Huge inequality gaps in a democratic society will tend to erode the respect for and security of doctrines of private property. The large majority must either own property or have reasonable prospects of attaining property if they are to support and maintain private property laws and traditions.

Whenever the dollar is held supreme and capitalistic interests dominate, a higher value will always be placed upon property rights than upon human rights.

Property in man, always morally unjust, has become nationally dangerous.

And sometimes I actually start to think human life is just as cheap to corporate America as animal life, so long as there are big profits to be made.

The American dream is under assault.

The mother's battle for her child with sickness, with poverty, with war, with all the forces of exploitation and callousness that cheapen human life needs to become a common human battle, waged in love and in the passion for survival.

The association of poverty with progress is the enigma of our times.

The world no longer permits the stronger to kill the weaker, but it allows the wealthy to oppress the poor. Money is holier than man. Human life is less sacred than property. To save a dollar is regarded as a more necessary virtue than to save a human heart. Society cares more for fortune than for truth.

This country is very good at creating wealth, but not very good at distributing it.

Safety should not be just for people who can afford it.

No man should be made poor so another man can be made rich.

History has shown us many times that if the state repressively forces the redistribution of wealth and social justice, it becomes dangerous both for democracy and for human creativity. Yet, restraining the excesses of a capitalist structure that creates new inequities seems to need more than good public policy.

The valuation of profit over people impedes human rights across much of the world.

People have no human rights, only the rights that they can gain on the labour market. Above all, wealth and power have to be protected.

Whoever claims the right to redistribute the wealth produced by others is claiming the right to treat human beings as chattel.

Abject poverty is demeaning, is an assault on the dignity of those that suffer it. In the end it demeans us all. It makes the freedom of all of us less meaningful.

It is time we recognized that the real terrorism is poverty.

There are some things concerning which we must always be maladjusted if we are to be people of good will. We must never adjust ourselves to racial segregation. We must never adjust ourselves to religious bigotry. We must never adjust ourselves to economic conditions that take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few.

Those who know the normal life of the poor... will realize well enough that without economic security, liberty is not worth having.

I will always be on the side of those who have nothing and who are not even allowed to enjoy the nothing they have in peace.

The class war is over.

There is a common tendency to ignore the poor or to develop some rationalisation for the good fortune of the fortunate.

It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime, and cruelty too

There is nothing inherently wrong with greed as a human motivator - greed motivating evolution. But there's a huge disconnect between the classes. It is very demoralizing to work for someone who makes a billion dollars a year while you make just barely enough to make it.