Simon Kuznets Quotes

The association of poverty with progress is the enigma of our times.

In the first phase of economic development you have rising inequality.

When inequality gets too extreme, then it becomes useless for growth, and it can even become bad because it tends to lead to high perpetuation of inequality over time and low mobility.

I like globalization; I want to say it works, but it is hard to say that when six hundred million people are slipping backwards.

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

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

Americans have historically been more willing than Europeans to tolerate high inequality levels if accompanied by strong economic growth and a healthy middle class.

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.

No society is healthy when the gap between the rich and the poor is growing.

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

Labour ministers often look puzzled when reports show that Britain has one of the lowest levels of social mobility in the developed world. They just don't get it. They see poverty, inequality, fairness, as all about income. For the past 12 years, they have relied on tax credits to solve this. But tax credits do not solve poverty: they mask it.

We are dealing with the greater challenges of globalisation. It is generating, in many cases, an increase in the levels of inequality in societies... that is undesirable.

The world is hugely unequal.

Disparity is Australia's worst social problem. Thousands of lives are slowly being crushed, while billions are wasted on thousands of little initiatives trying to 'close the gap.'

Economic chasm between people is something that is of interest to me. And something that I used to write about even as a child. It's something I've revisited a few times in my writings.

Bolivia is not yet a country of equals.

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.

Why did the world ever become so unequal?

Inequality, he argued, is necessary to generate the savings that growth requires.

It's not an underclass anymore; it's an outer class.

Unless we labor to help others achieve a reasonable stake in society, we may find ourselves losing the society in which we have too great a stake.

Poverty divide not only nations but societies within nations.

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

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

As income inequality increases, social mobility falls.