Mario Cuomo Quotes

The burning issue of our time is the growing inequality in income and wealth in our country.

The possession of wealth does not confer upon the wealthy the right to take advantage of the less fortunate.

In a world of global dependencies with no corresponding global polity and few tools of global justice, the rich of the world are free to pursue their own interests while paying no attention to the rest.

I don't mind the rich getting richer, but the poor shouldn't be getting poorer, and there should be more people moving into the middle class.

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

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

In a good society, those in the middle and at the bottom ought to benefit significantly from economic growth. When the country prospers, everybody should prosper.

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

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.

I don't subscribe to the view that people who are better off don't want to live in a more equal society.

The French don't think everyone should have the same bank balance, but they're offended by extremes of inequality.

There can be no rule of God in the present state of iniquitous inequalities in which a few roll in riches and the masses do not get enough to eat.

Everybody in politics claims to want to get everybody out of poverty. What's the opposite? Wealth. And what is often criticized by the left? Wealth.

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

The only way to have a better world and end poverty is by closing the gap between the top and the bottom.

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

When I was leader of the GLC, by the time I had been in control for three years, the difference in pay between the cleaner and the director general was a four-to-one ratio. I find that attractive.

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.

Men who are scandalized at the lack of freedom in Russia do not ask themselves how real is liberty among the poor, the weak, and the ignorant in capitalist society.

If we really just wanted to focus on making money, the first billion people who are already on Facebook have way more money than the next five or six billion people combined. It's not fair, but it's the way that it is. And, we just believe that everyone deserves to be connected, and on the Internet, so we're putting a lot of energy towards this.

Colour is not the issue in America; class is.

The future of America is not an entitlement. We have been given a treasure chest of gifts and opportunities, but some people are being left behind, and success is not sustainable unless it is shared.

I identify with the 99 per cent.

If we think we have ours and don't owe any time or money or effort to help those left behind, then we are a part of the problem rather than the solution to the fraying social fabric that threatens all Americans.

Class structures are a luxury that we cannot afford.