Robert Agostinelli Quotes

We live in a system that espouses merit, equality, and a level playing field, but exalts those with wealth, power, and celebrity, however gained.

I think inequality is fine, as long as it is in the common interest. The problem is when it gets so extreme, when it becomes excessive.

Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us but not all of us.

If you get so unequal that people believe they don't have a chance, that the field isn't level for them and their children, that puts democracy at risk.

The prime culprit in causing contemporary social inequality seems to be merit.

To say that a millionaire son of a Black deserves a preference over a poor White is pure madness.

Some people say we have this inequality because some people have been contributing much more to our society, and so it's fair that they get more. But then you look at the people who are at the top, and you realize they're not the people who have transformed our economy, our society.

I don't think equality is intrinsically valuable, meaning in and of itself. I'm not against inequality... if Bill Gates gets another hundred million dollars, it's no skin off my nose.

In a world of increasing inequality, the legitimacy of institutions that give precedence to the property rights of 'the Haves' over the human rights of 'the Have Nots' is inevitably called into serious question.

Colour is not the issue in America; class is.

And I am interested in the fact that class is very much a factor in America, even though it's not supposed to be.

I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil.

Inherited wealth, that is not what America is based upon.

Class structures are a luxury that we cannot afford.

It's not my fault that there is this gap between rich and poor, it is the fault of governments. I want a different world. One where I don't wake up thinking I'm so lucky to be able to feed my daughter.

Do we believe that there is equal economic opportunity out there in the real world, right now, for each and every one of these groups? If we believed in the tooth fairy, if we believed in the Easter Bunny, we might well believe that.

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.

This society cannot go forward, the way we have been going forward, where the gap between the rich and the poor keeps growing.

A meritocracy increases inequality --- by its very nature, it has to.

Inequality is an inevitable product of capitalist activity, and expanding equality of opportunity only increases it—because some individuals and communities are simply better able than others to exploit the opportunities for development and advancement that capitalism affords.

Safety should not be just for people who can afford it.

We cannot rebuild the American Dream here at home by catering to the voices of the privileged and powerful.

Liberty is impossible if 36 thousand families at the top of the economic pyramid get as much income as 12 million families at the bottom.

No man should be made poor so another man can be made rich.

One thing that is clearly not maximized by free markets is equality. I am talking not about that pale substitute for equality known as equality of opportunity but about equality itself.