Leslie Jamison Quotes

Do not waste your time on Social Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness.

Poverty is an artificial, external imposition on a human being; it is not innate in a human being. And since it is external, it can be removed. It is just a question of doing it.

Income inequality is troubling because, among other things, it means that many people in our society don't have the opportunities to advance themselves.

I think one of the biggest mistakes that America has made - and maybe the world because this is, sort of, the core of communism and socialism - is that you can have perfect solutions to social problems like poverty, like crime. You're not going to eliminate all crime. Maybe you'll never eliminate all poverty.

It seems that the fiction writer has a revolting attachment to the poor, for even when he writes about the rich, he is more concerned with what they lack than with what they have.

I started out young and idealistic, and it was all about social justice and fair distribution of resources. I didn't understand why everybody couldn't be equally prosperous.

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

I think, for me, the biggest issue is poverty in general, poverty in this time of plenty. It's reflected in homelessness. It's reflected in educational gaps. It's reflected in racial disparities.

I fall into the camp that income inequality is the biggest problem we face.

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.

The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character building values of the privation of the poor.

Poverty is the frontier we have to be able to cross.

Poverty is unnecessary.

American society as a whole can never achieve the outer-reaches of potential, so long as it tolerates the inner cities of despair.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

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.

The perennial conviction that those who work hard and play by the rules will be rewarded with a more comfortable present and a stronger future for their children faces assault from just about every direction. That great enemy of democratic capitalism, economic inequality, is real and growing.

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

Certainly, the poverty, the discrimination, the episodic unemployment could not but strike an inquiring youngster: why did these exist, and what could we do about them.

In cities like Athens, poor houses lined narrow and tortuous streets in spite of luxurious public buildings.

Money can't buy poverty.

At CARE, a leading humanitarian organization, we recognize people live their lives in a holistic manner. Issues such as health care, education and economic empowerment cannot be addressed in a vacuum. Thus, effective programs need to tackle the multiple root causes of poverty.

If the nation is rich but people are poor, the country cannot be strong, and society will be unstable.

I think that 'Elysium' the movie is unrealistic, with the space station and everything. I think 'Elysium' the metaphor is completely realistic: it's exactly where we're going.

I want to fight poverty and ignorance and give opportunity to those people who are locked out.