Michael Douglas Quotes

It’s a very difficult cultural issue. Why don’t Americans save?

I made a lot of money. I earned a lot of money with CNN and satellite and cable television. And you can't really spend large sums of money, intelligently, on buying things. So I thought the best thing I could do was put some of that money back to work - making an investment in the future of humanity.

In the richest country in the history of the world, this Obama economy has crushed the middle class. Family income has fallen by $4,000, but health insurance premiums are higher, food prices are higher, utility bills are higher, and gasoline prices have doubled. Today more Americans wake up in poverty than ever before.

I don't mind going back to daylight saving time. With inflation, the hour will be the only thing I've saved all year.

You and I can be busy, and we take a vacation from work. You can't take a break from being poor. You can't say, 'Hey I've had enough of worrying about money, I'm just going to be rich for a couple of weeks until I've recovered.'

Thirteen thousand dollars a year is not enough to raise a family. That's not enough to pay your bills and save for their future. That's barely enough to provide for even the most basic needs.

I couldn't do it at all. I was never really good at it, but I can't imagine what it can be like as a fortunate person not having to deal with it. I mean, people of all ages, not just my age, 25, 35, all the way down the line.

People have lots of money in super, but they have no money in the bank, and the super funds are not built to help people buy property.

When you have a lot of money, there's so many places you can go to manage your money. But when you don't have money, mathematically you actually need a financial plan more. You can't really afford to make mistakes. So why is this such a luxury product?

Very few people can afford to be poor.

We've all got to get away from this idea that the big money's still around.

I had a couple of million dollars' worth of... stock once. And now it's not worth much more than wallpaper. I guess I just wasn't born to be rich.

Rich folks always talk hard times.

There's something very soothing about the simplicity of doing what's right in front of you: paying the rent, buying groceries, and when there's a little extra for a treat like cinnamon rolls, whoopee! When you live paycheck to paycheck, you only have so much to lose.

Frankly that's what makes such a big difference between President Obama on one hand and Mitt Romney on the other. Gov. Romney has not walked in those shoes of the ordinary Americans and frankly I don't think he has the capacity to quite understand the struggle that the 98 percent of Americans go through every single day.

I'll always be poor in my mind.

Middle class families should not be forced to scrape by with less while oil companies get away with more.

I never had the high-paying job or the company car. It took me over a decade to pay off my student loans. I never had to worry about where to dock my yacht to reduce my taxes.

I gotta make money - it all tends to disappear in this field.

It's real difficult to save when you don't have any money.

I don't make any money.

I just want to be able to keep my house and pay for my son's school tuition in Los Angeles.

The middle class is the group in this country that has been taken for a ride.

Surely we can afford to make a distinction between the people whose only capital is their mettle and physical energy and the people whose income is derived from investments. Such a distinction would mean much to millions of American workers and would be an added inspiration to the man who must provide a competence during his few productive years to care for himself and his family when his earnings capacity is at an end.

By 1909, only about 16 percent of Americans had [Bank] savings accounts … While over half of all New Englanders had savings accounts, the number in the West and South was miniscule.