John Lanchester Quotes

In a capitalist society all institutions are in danger of control by the counting room.

The worst enemy of humanity is U.S. capitalism. That is what provokes uprisings like our own, a rebellion against a system, against a neoliberal model, which is the representation of a savage capitalism. If the entire world doesn't acknowledge this reality, that the national states are not providing even minimally for health, education and nourishment, then each day the most fundamental human rights are being violated.

When you print money, the money does not flow evenly into the economic system. It stays essentially in the financial service industry and among people that have access to these funds, mostly well-to-do people. It does not go to the worker.

Is Wall Street the rightful master of our economic fate? Or should we choose a broader form of sovereignty?

Capitalism is an organized system to guarantee that greed becomes the primary force of our economic system and allows the few at the top to get very wealthy and has the rest of us riding around thinking we can be that way, too - if we just work hard enough, sell enough Tupperware and Amway products, we can get a pink Cadillac.

In countries operating a largely capitalist system, there does not appear to be a wide understanding among its actors and overseers of either its advantages or its hazards.

The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm, capitalism is that kind of a system.

The forces in a capitalist society, if left unchecked, tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

The economy may be complex, but Americans understand that the Wall Street banks control an outsized portion of the economy and that they have an outsized interest in their own profits.

The only trouble with capitalism is capitalists—they're too greedy.

So, we have in America today, my friends, a condition by which about 10 men dominate the means of activity in at least 85 percent of the activities that you own. They either own directly everything or they have got some kind of mortgage on it, with a very small percentage to be excepted. They own the banks, they own the steel mills, they own the railroads, they own the bonds, they own the mortgages, they own the stores, and they have chained the country from one end to the other

Trade will no longer lie at the mercy of ignorant and reckless politicians, or at the mercy, no less to be deprecated, of a few purse-proud, domineering, dictatorial bank directors, who care not what mischief they do if they can but perpetuate their own exclusive privileges.

Inequality is a good thing. You can’t have a capitalistic system without it. But we have excessive inequality now. Virtually all the benefits are going to a small group of people.

Banking was conceived in iniquity and was born in sin. The Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create deposits, and with the flick of the pen they will create enough deposits to buy it back again. However, take it away from them, and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear and they ought to disappear, for this would be a happier and better world to live in. But, if you wish to remain the slaves of Bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create deposits

Triumphant capitalism has unleashed a powerful drive toward inequality, not improvement, in the social sphere.

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

Modern capitalism has no purpose except to keep the show going.

Capitalism has proven to be the only system that works, but the problem with capitalism is that extreme wealth ends up in the hands of a few people.

Capitalism cannot reform itself; it is doomed to self-destruction.

The very design of neoliberal principles is a direct attack on democracy.

Capitalism is destroying the world.

I don't have anything against corporate America. I mean, I guess there's something about living in a capitalist society that can get kind of terrifying at times.

Money ... is the nerve center of the economic system. If, therefore, the state is able to gain unquestioned control over the unit of all accounts, the state will then be in a position to dominate the entire economic system, and the whole society.

The economic anarchy of capitalist society as it exists today is, in my opinion, the real source of evil.

I think this has been a class war waged by the rich against the poor, and I think that they won. And I think the poor are fighting back.