David Autor Quotes

That the way to achieve higher standards of living for all is through science and technology, taking advantage of better tools, methods and organization.

I don't think any of us ran for the United States Senate to preside over the lowering of the American standard of living.

The most remarkable aspect of the transition we are living through is not so much the passage from want to affluence as the passage from labor to leisure.

It's easy for the thought-leader and executive classes to embrace a 'do what you love and love what you do' philosophy when they are wealthy enough to work hard only voluntarily, and when their jobs grant them status.

Those who work ought to live better than those that don't.

A successful society is characterized by a rising living standard for its population, increasing investment in factories and basic infrastructure, and the generation of additional surplus, which is invested in generating new discoveries in science and technology.

Our goal is to upgrade the life of China's middle class. We all want to live better.

Government has never increased the standard of living of one single human being in civilization's history. For some reason that simple truth has evaded everybody.

Society’s willingness to provide for the poor among them increases when the standard of living is advancing.

What makes this country different is that we have a great middle class.

A simple way to forecast the future is to look at what rich people have today; middle-income people will have something equivalent in 10 years, and poor people will have something equivalent in an additional decade.

Politicians should tell working Americans what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. And what they need to hear is that it is possible for all Americans to have good lives, even if the can’t all have good jobs.

Poverty is not just about income: it's about aspiration. It's not just about giving people a couple of extra pounds a week, welcome though that is.

Up to now, economic development has always meant that people, instead of doing something, are enabled to buy it... Economic development has also meant that, after a time, people must buy the commodity because the conditions under which they could get along without it had disappeared from their physical, social, or cultural environment.

Relative poverty acknowledges that the definition of poverty should move with the times.

I think you will find me to be a typical middle-class American.

We adapt to technological progress by raising our minimum standards of living and working to stay above this rising threshold.

One way to understand human progress is to look at how technology has made products and services - once reserved for the elite - progressively more accessible and affordable.

Instead of helping a lucky few to escape disadvantage, a Labour government will aim to abolish poverty completely and create a more equal society, raising the living standards and well-being of all.

Nothing increases the number of jobs so rapidly as labor-saving machinery, because it releases wants theretofore unknown, by permitting leisure.

The big legislative updates that we need to compete in the 21st century and to raise living standards have been blocked by a reluctance to seek common ground.

It's nice to work hard and party harder.

For thousands of years, until about 1850, you see humans accumulating more and more power by the invention of new technologies and by new systems of organization in the economy and in politics, but you don't see any real improvement in the well-being of the average person.

As we progress as a species, we will unlock new means for enhancing our lives at every turn - and our conceptions of wealth and poverty will evolve in tandem.

A universal basic income would be the best way to give everyone the opportunity to do more unpaid but incredibly important work, such as caring for children and the elderly.