John Kenneth Galbraith Quotes

I've seen it with my own eyes: When government takes money from the poor and the middle class, everyone suffers.

Governments should end the extreme concentration of wealth in order to end poverty. This means tackling tax dodging but also increasing taxes on wealth and high incomes to ensure a more level playing field and generate the billions of dollars needed to invest in healthcare, education, and job creation.

My message to David Cameron, as the head of our government, is to seriously think again about this Robin Hood tax, the tax to help the poor by taking a little bit from the rich.

All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting 'the rich' to pay 'their fair share' is part of a big charade. This is not about economics, it is about politics.

You know and I know and economists know that trickle-down economics doesn't work.

Those who have been most fortunate in amassing wealth in our country should return a portion to the nation, since in many ways they have benefitted the most from our American way of life.

When a liberal says they are going to soak the rich, the middle class will get drenched.

Liberals believe government should take people's earnings to give to poor people. Conservatives disagree. They think government should confiscate people's earnings and give them to farmers and insolvent banks.

When you say fiscal responsibility, it seems to me that you really mean rich people keeping their money.

I don’t have anything against the rich. I just want some of their money to pay for essential services.

Our tax system rewards wealth more than it does work.

The United States has a huge budget deficit so taxes are going to have to go up and I certainly agree they should go up more on the rich than everyone else. That - that's just justice.

At a time of massive inequality, I think we can raise substantial sums of revenue to address the needs of working families, the elderly, and the children, by asking those people who are doing phenomenally well to start paying their fair share.

Spreading the wealth punishes success while setting America on course for a greater dependency on government.

Conventional wisdom on government's role in inequality often has it backwards. Tax reforms have resulted in a more progressive federal income tax; government transfer payments have become less progressive.

But only 'rich' people by definition have the 'extra' money to buy things and invest to create economic growth. Do we really want to tax that 'extra' money away - and give it to the government to spend? Does that make any economic sense outside of politics and our emotional desire to make everyone suffer equally through these tough times?

If you are a rich person straining every sinew to keep every last pound in your pocket, there comes a point when you realize you are not just escaping the clutches of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. You are passing a greater burden on to people poorer than yourself, and depriving even poorer people of your support.

America's grossly unfair tax system won't lead to class war. Or, if it does, the war will be brief.

My premise is not to tax to destroy the wealth of the wealthy; it's to increase the wealth of the bottom and the middle class.

A properly designed tax system can strike a balance between helping the poor and, at the same time, giving people the incentive to work.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

If we're not going to tax the rich anymore, we're going to create class warfare.

I mean, the Obama position has been, 'We think government ought to be spending this money, not the people who earn it.'

The generosity of the super-rich is sometimes proffered as evidence they're contributing as much to the nation's well-being as they did decades ago when they paid a much larger share of their earnings in taxes.

There is a legitimate concern about wealth distribution in the United States, but the answer is not to scapegoat any individual who makes over $200,000 per year and to try to sell the fraud that the government can equitably take the money of those who have earned it and give it to those who haven't.