Benjamin Franklin Quotes

The middle class of this country, our historic backbone and our best hope for a strong society in the future, is losing its place at the table.

The middle-class America of my youth was another country.

The best social programs we've had in this country are those that have united the middle class and the poor.

The middle class in America is at a tipping point. It will not last another generation if we don't boldly change course now.

I think there's a certain sense of grounding that comes from not being a rich kid from a media-elite school.

I believe a solid, really strong middle-class is the key to making the country in the best way.

We need to make sure middle-class people are able to pay the bills. We need to make sure that poor people don't starve. Those are values, too.

We cannot afford to leave the poor behind.

There are more and more products with fewer people able to consume them. We have to help those who don't have the economic stability to grow, or one day there will be very few who are able to buy what we're selling.

One thing we're going to focus on is the middle class and the crushing prices and stagnant wages they're facing. What motivates me is looking at my 3-year-old son and thinking about what we're passing on to him and his future wife and their future kids.

I would say I came from upper middle class family.

It's the middle class that feels the luxury of being able to have causes.

Whoever rises to deliver the inaugural Address of 2013 will speak to a nation in which the American Dream is under profound economic and cultural pressure. This is perhaps best measured by the state of the middle class.

Slowly but surely the old establishment is being replaced by a new, larger, more meritocratic middle class—a middle class that will include millions of people who traditionally may see themselves as working class but whose ambitions are far broader than their parents and grandparents.

You cannot have a strong, resilient economy unless you have a strong resilient middle class.

As income inequality increases, social mobility falls.

The Great Gatsby Curve

Americans have historically been more willing than Europeans to tolerate high inequality levels if accompanied by strong economic growth and a healthy middle class.

Every country has rich people. But only a few places have achieved a vibrant and stable middle class. And in the history of the world, none has been more vibrant and more stable than the American middle class.

The truth is the middle class is not only stagnant but it is my fear that, without sustained and focused action, it is at risk of disappearing.

Nobody talks about the poor. Everybody talks about the middle class and just kinda want to ignore that the poor exist. And you cannot ignore that they exist if you want to help them.

I was as middle class as it comes.

We have an economy that's really geared toward rewarding the investor class. What are we doing to make sure that people who want to have a middle-class life are able to keep up?

The middle-class ladder has rungs that no longer exist for many trying to climb higher. Instead, for too many, in too many places, their chore is simply trying to hang on.

Even though Mr. Trump is a billionaire, he is still able to relate to average working men and women. The billionaire gets along with the bricklayer.