Jerry Brown Quotes

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

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.

The aggregation of large fortunes is not at all a thing to be regretted.

There’s a mal-distribution in wealth in this country. Entitlements end up going to the rich anyway. Some of them should be attacked. The ones who rip us off, the ones who get bailed out.

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

You've got the top 400 Americans owning more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans. Most folks do not think that is right.

The issue of wealth inequality is ... the great moral issue of our time.

Welfare for the wealthy simply can no longer be afforded.

Unless you’re at the very top, you need a more equitable economy.

Inequality of income is bad for everyone, not just the poor and the middle class.

The stock market is a playground for rich. The top 1 percent control 35 percent of stock wealth. As long as the stock market grows faster than the rest of the economy, the rich will keep getting richer

The greatest issue before the people—the question of special privilege and unequal distribution of wealth.

The superrich have grown worldwide. But America is at the head of the pack.

Tax breaks and other financial breaks that favor the wealthiest among us do not create greater prosperity for all; they simply siphon off more and more money to those who already have it, and more and more money away from those who do not.

There is a legitimate concern about wealth distribution in the United States, but the answer is not to scapegoat any individual who makes over $200,000 per year and to try to sell the fraud that the government can equitably take the money of those who have earned it and give it to those who haven't.

It is interesting to note that the 200 richest people have more assets than the 2 billion poorest.

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.

Why did the world ever become so unequal?

An equal division of property is impracticable. But the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property.

For the good of Spain, I should like there to be rather fewer rich people and rather fewer poor.

Unequal wealth distribution is a risk factor for inequality that must be attacked by policies.

Inequality is a good thing. You can’t have a capitalistic system without it. But we have excessive inequality now. Virtually all the benefits are going to a small group of people.

The distribution of wealth is just as important as its creation.

Equality of opportunity as we have known it no longer exists… we are steering a steady course toward economic oligarchy, if we are not there already”

One big part of the reason we have so much inequality is that the top 1 percent wants it that way.