Economic Priorities Quotes

Capitalism knows only one color: that color is green; all else is necessarily subservient to it, hence, race, gender and ethnicity cannot be considered within it.

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.

I contend that the reason why America is not as happy as it was in 1950 or 1920 or whenever, 100 years ago, is because our priorities are wrong, but it has nothing to do with exploiting the planet and has everything to do with losing faith in God.

It's not fair for the U.S. to spend, on arms and weapons, so much money and then not spend on health care the money that is needed.

Capitalism doesn't care about sentimentality.

If you have democracy, people will vote for washing machines. They love them.

You just don't see people running through the streets to have the deficit cut.

... the forces of power, particularly corporate power, are impatient with what is adequate for a coherent community. Because power gains so little from community in the short run, it does not hesitate to destroy community for the long run.

Our children are our signature to the roster of history; our land is merely the place our money was made. There is as yet no social stigma in the possession of a gullied farm, a wrecked forest, or a polluted stream, provided the dividends suffice to send the youngsters to college. Whatever ails the land, the government will fix it.

In the U.S., hospitals are rewarded for keeping hospital beds full. That's the market at work. The question is: should we work for the market, or should the market work for us?

Development involves methodically destroying the real world or the world of living things in order to substitute in its stead a totally different world; the surrogate world or world of human artifacts—that which most favors the maximization of GNP

Take a look at the current debates in Washington, and of course, everything in the media. Only one issue is discussed: the deficit - the least significant issue, but the most significant issue for the banks. The big problem, joblessness, is barely discussed, even though that's what the public wants, as polls clearly show. That's even what the business press supports, but the financial institutions are so powerful that the only issue is the deficit, and this runs right through the intellectual culture.

We have the worst-equipped army in the world … our people don’t give a damn. They’re too busy making money.

Americans will cheerfully forgo the luxury of new automobiles in order to assure adequate mechanized equipment for defense.

I think it's much more important to keep people in work than have pay rises.

This film cost $31 million. With that kind of money I could have invaded some country.

While I haven't read economist Robin Hahnel's work, replacing capitalism would be at the very bottom of my list of priorities - to be considered only after everything else had been tried. Improving our capitalistic system however, is at the top of my list and is of course the major theme of "The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism."

Money is not God, and human dignity is very important.

I wish we didn't live in a world where buying and selling things seems to have become almost more important than either producing or using them.

Look, ideally I'd like to have free money to give to everybody. The reality is in government you have to choose and make decisions.

In an economic recession, naturally, when you ask people to list their priorities, they're going to place a higher priority on the immediate economic situation.

To these economic refugees, maybe we should tell them, 'We'll call you when we need you.'

[T]he economy remains the top issue for the electorate.

Corporate America is not dumb; it's worked hard to sew up both political parties in its nefarious schemes to place their short-term economic interests before the health and well-being of the average American.

Why can we find emergency funds for every other country? Why can't we find emergency funds for our own country?