Boots Riley Quotes

Upper classes are a nation's past; the middle class is its future.

There is no society, however free and democratic, where wealth will not create an aristocracy.

The fact is, riches are power, and poverty is slavery all over the earth, and one sort of establishment is no better, no worse, for a people than another.

The upper 1 percent, the people down on Wall Street, the corporate executives, they're the people that control this economy.

Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.

There isn't much discussion of ruling class in America even in Boston, probably one of the most class-conscious cities in the country?

Big government inevitably drives an upward distribution of wealth to those whose wealth, confidence and sophistication enable them to manipulate government.

The power which a multiple millionaire, who may be my neighbor and perhaps my employer, has over me is very much less than that which the smallest "functionaire" possesses who wields the coercive power of the state, and on whose desecration it depends whether and how I am allowed to live or to work.

Americans ... are ruled by the Boss and the Trust.

America is like a melting pot. The people at the bottom get burned, and the scum floats to the top.

Water does tend to flow up hill toward money and power.

Them’s that got the gold makes the rules.

God Almightie in his most holy and wise providence hath soe disposed the Condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich some poore, some highe and eminent in power and dignitie; others meane and in subjeccion.

Those who control the wealth of this society have an influence over political life far in excess of their number.

Where enough money calls the tune, the general public will not be heard.

Davos is where billionaires tell millionairs what middle class people think.

Mankind has been and is divided into three parts: the Haves, the Have-Nots, and the Have-a-Little, Want Mores.

It's a little hard not to be an elitist when you're making millions of dollars a year.

The 19th-century pure capitalist model of society was a pyramid, concentrations of enormous wealth in a small group at the top, a not very big middle-class in the middle, and an enormous percentage of the population in the bottom part of the pyramid.

There's this idea of America that some people have to win and some have to lose, so certain things are in place to make this happen. Some people have to be the next legislators and political elites, and some have to fill the prisons and work in McDonald's. That's how America works. It's a machine which needs people up top and people down low.

Surplus money allows some people to exercise inordinate power over others: in the workplace; in politics; and above all in the capture, use and destruction of the planet's natural wealth.

I do have strong feelings about the aristocracy: they serve a purpose, but it's a sort of insular strand of society.

The ruling class is the rich. . . . And those people are so able to manipulate our democracy that they really control the democracy.

Inequality hardens society into a class system. Inequality divides us from one another... Inequality undermines democracy.

Politics isn't about left versus right; it's about top versus bottom.