Molly Ivins Quotes

Wealth inequality has increased.

To be clear, the gap between the have gots and the have nots is widening. In this most multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic America ever, that concerns me.

When you have an economically unequal society, you end up with huge swaths of society that are disposable, basically.

The difference between rich and poor is becoming more extreme, and as income inequality widens the wealth gap in major nations, education, health and social mobility are all threatened.

The messenger matters. When people of modest means complain about inequality, it usually gets written off as class warfare, but when billionaires complain, the problem is redefined.

An imbalance between the rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.

It is the unvarying law that the wealth of the community will be in the hands of the few ...

The wall between rich and poor is a wall of glass which all can see.

History shows that when you have continuing income inequality it is an invitation to class conflict.

one kind of affluence: the outward sign of wealth for a small number, the mask of poverty for the majority, and a source of corruption for all.

There’s just too much money in the hands of too few.

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

The financial rewards of economic change have accrued disproportionately to the most talented and well-educated members of society.

Today, half of the national income goes to the richest 10 percent. In 2007, the top 1 percent controlled 34.6 percent of the wealth—significantly more than the bottom 90 percent who control just 26.9 percent.

'Mr. Robot,' in particular, signals the rise of a fresh post-Occupy portrayal of the wealth gap. No longer is the story of income inequity delivered via a well-meaning, crushingly earnest indie film by John Sayles or in a single laugh line on 'Roseanne.'

Income inequality is one thing, but a permanent division into the haves and have-nots is an entirely different thing - and much less acceptable.

If we wait until income inequality is much more severe, we will have a whole class of new superrich who will probably feel entitled to their wealth and will have the means to defend their interest. That's already gone far enough. We shouldn't let it become more extreme.

In Caribbean there is no middle class: you're either rich or you're poor. And the ladder to success is not really a ladder, it's a chain; once you reach a certain level, you can't go back and you can only keep going forward.

The mass of the rich and the poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else,and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit.

I think our biggest problem in society is we're headed more and more toward a two-tiered society. That is, creating welfare for the wealthy and destroying opportunities for the disadvantaged.

In 1985, the top five percent of the households - the wealthiest five percent - had net worth of $8 trillion - which is a lot. Today, after serial bubble after serial bubble, the top five per cent have net worth of $40 trillion. The top five percent have gained more wealth than the whole human race had created prior to 1980.

He isn’t like us Low. You know that right.” I knew what Cage was saying. Marcus was out of my league. He didn’t want me thinking there could ever be anything between me and his roommate. I was low class. Marcus was a rich kid. “I’m not stupid Cage.

The rich are never threatened by the poor - they do not notice them.

Society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy; those who had anything united in common terror.

The chasm between rich and poor is becoming larger, and I think it's interesting terrain to talk about and expose.