Eugene V. Debs Quotes

I believe in capitalism but in fair capitalism.

I would like to see a fair division of profits between capital and labor, so that the toiler could save enough to mingle a little June with the December of his life.

A strong economy is perfectly consistent with concern for equity and economic justice.

We want a system in which the worker shall get what he produces and the capitalist shall produce what he gets.

I think organized labor is a necessary part of democracy. Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.

The production of wealth is the result of agreement between labor and capital, between employer and employed. Its distribution, therefore, will follow the law of its creation, or great injustice will be done.

The only distribution of wealth which is the product of labor, which will be honest, will come through a more equal distribution of the productive capacity of men.

The distribution of wealth is just as important as its creation.

The economy must provide justice as well as prosperity.

If exclusive privileges were not granted, and if the financial system would not tend to concentrate wealth, there would be few great fortunes and no quick wealth. When the means of growing rich is divided between a greater number of citizens, wealth will also be more evenly distributed; extreme poverty and extreme wealth would be also rare.

Unless you’re at the very top, you need a more equitable economy.

Of course we want prosperity, but we wish prosperity in such a way … so that everybody will get his share, and that it will not be confined to a few who monopolize the means of production or the means of transportation, and thus prevent that equality of distribution that we all like to see.

Since Mill, in 1848, wrote his chapter on the future of the working classes, the question of the distribution of wealth has be-come of still greater importance. We cannot look round on the political phenomena of to-day without seeing that this question is at the root of them. We see the perplexity in which men stand, and the divisions springing up in our great political parties, because of the uncertainty of politicians how to grapple with it.

I believe in capitalism for everybody, not necessarily high finance but capitalism that works for the working men and women of this country who are out there paddling alone in America right now.

Political Freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie; and the workers want no lying.

People who work make the world live better and to reward these people well is normal. Yet they are not the people who are the wealthiest.

Share the Wealth

Neither Capitalism nor Socialism can pretend to be an ideology. They are merely methods for dividing ownership and income.

The priority of work over capital places an obligation in justice upon employers to consider the welfare of the workers before the increase of profits.

I make sure that New York gets more than its fair share.

In a morally adjusted economy ... the rich should not get richer if the poor get poorer.

Until economic freedom is attained for everybody, there can be no real freedom for anybody.

Each man has an equal social right to multiply his power of motion by all the social factors of civilization. Private property in any of these factors is inconsistent with this fundamental right; it must, obviously, prove a source of economic despotism and industrial slavery.”

In order to do away with the parasitic classes of society and organize the economic life of the country, universal labor duty is introduced.

I, however, wished to win over the soul of the German workingman, and I fought zealously to attain this goal. I was filled with the consciousness of a plain duty and responsibility toward my entire people--also, therefore, toward the laboring classes. What was theirs by right and justice should become theirs, I thought; moreover, I believed that this should be brought about, wherever the will or power of the employers ceased, by the lord of the land and his government, in so far as justice or necessity demanded. As soon as I had recognized the necessity for reforms, to some of which the industrial elements would not consent, I took up the cudgels for the laboring classes, impelled by a sense of justice.