Here are about fifty quotes about economic justice:
“Good financial regulation helped the United States (and the world) avoid a major crisis for four decades after the Great Depression. Deregulation in the 1980s led to scores of financial crises in the succeeding three decades, of which America’s crisis in 2008-09 was only the worst. But those government failures or no accident: the financial sector used its political muscle to make sure that the market failures were not corrected, and that the sector’s private rewards remained well in excess of their social contributions— one of the factors contributing to the bloated financial sector and to the high levels of inequality at the top.” ~ Joseph Stiglitz
“Surely high school students would be interested to learn that in 1950 physicians made two and a half times what unionized industrial workers made but now make six times as much. Surely they need to understand that top managers of clothing firms, who used to earn fifty times what their American employees made, now make 1,500 times what their Malaysian workers earn.” ~ James W. Loewen
“Social class is probably the single most important variable in society. From womb to tomb, it correlates with almost all other social characteristics of people that we can measure.” ~ James W. Loewen
“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed I labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
“All signs are that the Scandinavian countries, where wage inequality is more moderate than elsewhere, owe this result in large part to the fact that their educational system is relatively egalitarian and inclusive.” However, later he notes that “”…even with the considerable increase in the average level of education over the course of the twentieth century, earned income inequality did not decrease. Qualification levels shifted upward: a high school diploma now represents what a grade school certificate used to mean, a college degree what a high school diploma used to stand for, and so on.” ~ Thomas Piketty
“Today, a century after the railroad barons dominated the economy, much of the wealth at the top in the United States – and some of the suffering at the bottom— stems from wealth transfers instead of wealth creation.” ~ Joseph Stiglitz
“The history of inequality is shaped by the way economic, social, and political actors view what is just and what is not, as well as by the relative power of those actors and the collective choices that result.” ~ Thomas Piketty
“The issue is governance. Will ordinary people have a democratic voice in deciding what roles are in the best interests of society? Or will a small ruling elite, meeting in secret and far from public view, be allowed to continue to set the rules that shape humanity’s future? If the concern of the decision makers is only for next quarter’s corporate profits, who will care for the health and well-being of people and the planet?” ~ John Cavanagh and Jerry Mander
“Markets, by themselves, even when they are stable, often lead to high levels of inequality, outcomes that are widely viewed as unfair. Market forces— the laws of supply and demand— of course inevitably play some role in determining the extent of economic inequality. But those forces are at play in other advanced industrial countries as well.” ~ Joseph Stiglitz
“… Only by market restrictions can the rights of the vast majority of people to effective participation in government and an equal role in the control of their social lives be protected. I say this because if we let the market run free in this way, power will pass into the hands of a few to control the lives of the many and determine the fundamental design of the society.” ~ Kai Nielson
“What about our entitlements and desserts? Suppose I have built my house with my own hands, from materials I have purchased and on land that I have purchased and that I have lived in for years and have carefully cared for it. The house is mine and I am entitled to keep it even if by dividing the house into two apartments… Justice requires that such an entitlement be respected here.” ~ Kai Nielson
“People, some might argue, with expensive tastes and extravagant needs, say a need for a really good wine… Is that the kind of world we reflectively want? Well, if they’re not getting them is the price we have to pay for everyone having their basic needs met, then it is a price we ought to pay.” ~ Kai Nielson
“Moneyed interests do not want the curtain of the “free market” lifted because that would expose their influence over the rules of the capitalist game and reveal potential alliances that could countervail that power. They would prefer the bottom 90 percent continue to preoccupy themselves with tendentious battles over government’s size (or that it war over noneconomic issues such as same-sex marriage, abortion, guns, race, and religion) than find common cause.“ ~ Robert Reich
“It is the large enterprises that pose obstructions to political democracy. Through their spending and relations with government officials they exercise much more power than do citizens… [This is] a mammoth violation of the political equality deemed necessary for genuine rather than spurious democracy.” ~ Charles Lindblom
“If we made… an income pyramid out of a child’s play blocks with each layer portraying $1,000 of income, the peak would be far higher than the Eiffel Tower, but almost all of us would be within a yard of the ground.” ~ Paul Samuelson
“To be the master of one’s own fate— a fair definition of liberty— means not simply being free from overt coercion (though that is a precondition); it also involves being given the means to overcome various external forces that impinge on freedom of choice and self-sufficiency. It means being free to set one’s course.” ~ E. J. Dionne
“The truth is, various forms of manipulating the market are central to the operation of the current corporate-dominated political-economic system, not peripheral to it. They come with the territory, as everyone knows full well when they shift their gaze away from abstract theory to the real world of oil company lobbying, drug company political payoffs, Microsoft anti-competitive maneuvering, Enron corruption, and Andersen accounting complicity.” ~ Gar Alperovitz
“While there may be underlying economic forces at play, politics have shaped the market, and shaped it in ways that advantage the top at the expense of the rest.” [He goes on to call the system] “a vicious nexus between politics and economics.” ~ Joseph Stiglitz
“Various quasi-public and public firms (e.g., worker-owned firms, municipal electrical utilities) have been shown to be at least as efficient as traditional corporations— and in many instances, more efficient.” ~ Gar Alperovitz
“A former president of the American Political Science Association, Charles Lindblom, puts it baldly in his book Politics and Markets: ‘The large private corporation fits oddly into democratic theory and vision. Indeed, it does not fit.’ ~ Gar Alperovitz
“Probably the most damaging indictment that can be made of the capitalistic system is the way in which its emphasis on unfettered individualism results in exploitation of natural resources in a manner to destroy the physical foundations of national longevity. Is there no way for the capitalistic system to develop a mechanism for taking thought and planning action in terms of the general welfare for the long run…?” ~ Henry A. Wallace
“We shall hold firmly to the American theme of peace, prosperity and freedom and shall repel all the attacks of the plutocrats and monopolists who will try to brand us as reds. If it is traitorous to believe in peace, we are traitors. If it is communistic to believe in prosperity for all, we are communists. If it is red-baiting to fight for free speech and real freedom of the press, we are red-baiters. If it is un-American to believe in freedom from monopolistic dictation, we are un-American. I say that we are more American than the neo-Fascists who attack us. I say, On with the fight!” ~ Henry A. Wallace
“Men and women cannot be really free until they have plenty to eat, and time and ability to read and think and talk things over.” ~ Henry A. Wallace
“One of the darkest sides to the market economy that came to light was the large and growing inequality that has left the American social fabric, and the country’s economic stability, fraying at the edges: the rich are getting richer while the rest were facing hardships that seemed inconsonant with the American dream.” ~ Joseph Stiglitz
“At the very heart of the Pluralist Commonwealth [based on the democratization of wealth] is the principle that ownership of the nation’s wealth must ultimately be shifted, institutionally, to benefit the vast majority.” ~ Gar Alperovitz
“Cartels are the greatest menace to the American business principles of free private enterprise and equal opportunity.” ~ Henry A. Wallace
“Government has a final responsibility for the well-being of its citizenship. If private cooperative effort fails to provide work for willing hands and relief for the unfortunate, those suffering hardship through no fault of their own have the right to call upon the Government for aid; and a government worthy of its name must make fitting responses.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Most of us need to exercise our sense of responsibility more than our rights in order to change and improve society.” ~ Ellen A. Herda
“Two centuries of the neglect of civic virtue and republican values have caused America to become a procedural republic more attentive to individual rights than to the common good and to citizen duties. The price of this neglect has been the corruption of government by interests, loss of popular sovereignty, and erosion of civic virtue.” ~ Gary Hart
“…hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing government. The Nation looked to Government, but Government looked away.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Being compassionate toward others is based on empathy, or what the Buddha called ‘putting yourself in the place of others.’ Knowing that you want to be happy and free from suffering, you can infer that other beings want this as well, and you treat them accordingly.” ~ Mark W. Muesse
“The realistic way to reduce the amount of money in politics is to reduce the amount of politics in money – the importance of government in allocating wealth and opportunity.” ~ George Will
“Unless the great majority of Americans not only have, but believe they have, a fair chance, the better American future will be dangerously compromised.” ~ Herbert Croly
“In the long run men inevitably become the victims of their wealth. They adapt their lives and habits to their money, not their money to their lives. It preoccupies their thoughts, creates artificial needs, and draws a curtain between them and the world.” ~ Herbert Croly
Why are so many men libertarians? Why so many capitalists, robber-barons, and union-busting politicians? ~ Jason Merchey
“If we take our Constitution and founding ideals seriously, the business of America is democracy. A well-functioning democracy requires diverse and vibrant media to ensure a ‘vigorous, robust, uninhibited democracy.’” ~ Ralph Nader
“Economists often look at the Gross National Product (GNP) or the Net National Product (NNP) to find out what the per-capita production is; if you did that in the United States, and you multiply it by a family of four, it does come out to around $140,000, now. The potential of the economy is extraordinary; what isn’t working is the way in which it’s organized. The idea that people should be worried about their health care or their retirement is in some sense ridiculous because we live in such a rich society.” ~ Gar Alperovitz
“Profit is made on a grand scale in America, but most of us don’t share in it. We work for dollars that fluctuate in value at workplaces where the managers never really care about us or our hearts. We live within the margin of profit. We are the margin of profit. The money taken from our labor is used to buy political power that does not represent us.” ~ Walter Mosley
“Countries around the world provide frightening examples of what happens to societies when they reach the level of inequality toward which we are moving. Is not a pretty picture: countries where the rich live in gated communities, waited upon by hordes of low income workers; unstable political systems where populists promise the masses a better life, only to disappoint. Perhaps most importantly, there is an absence of hope. In these countries the poor know that their prospects of emerging from poverty – let alone making it to the top – are minuscule. This is not something we should be striving for.” ~ Joseph Stiglitz
“I believe capitalism will eventually be replaced by a communitarian ethic where the rights and care of all beings will be taken into consideration, not just the greed of a corporate few.” ~ Terry Tempest Williams
“The financial crisis did more than cast doubt on the ability of markets to allocate risk efficiently. It also prompted a widespread sense that markets have become detached from morals, and that we need to reconnect the two.” ~ Michael J. Sandel
“There are seven things that will destroy us: wealth without work; pleasure without conscience; knowledge without character; religion without sacrifice; politics without principle; science without humanity; business without ethics.” ~ Mohandas K. Gandhi
“Hey look, the general consensus is that what moves man the most is the quest for money. But I happen to believe that man is also moved by a deep sense of honor and an even deeper sense of doing good.” ~ Dennis Miller
“It is the large enterprises that pose obstructions to political democracy. Through their spending and relations with government officials, they exercise much more power than do citizens… [This is] a mammoth violation of the political equality deemed necessary for genuine democracy.” ~ Charles Lindblom
“The first step in establishing a just society is for everyone to submit to morality as the final arbiter of all human disputes.” ~ Michael Boylan
“Gross National Product measures neither the health of our children, the quality of their education, nor the joy of their play. It measures neither the beauty of our poetry, nor the strength of our marriages. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets alike. It measures neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our wit nor our courage; neither our compassion nor our devotion to country. It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worth living, and it can tell us everything about our country except those things that make us proud to be part of it.” ~ Robert F. Kennedy
“I’ve always resented the smug statements of politicians, media commentators, and corporate executives who talked of how in America if you worked hard, you would become rich. The meaning of that was: If you were poor, it was because you hadn’t worked hard enough. I knew that was a lie – about my father, and about millions of others; men and women who worked harder than anyone.” ~ Howard Zinn
“… some of the most important innovations in business in the last three decades have centered not on making the economy more efficient but on how better to ensure monopoly power or how better to circumvent government regulations intended to align social returns and private rewards. Making markets less transparent is a favorite tool. The more transparent markets are, the more competitive they are likely to be. Bankers know this. That’s why banks have been fighting to keep their business writing derivatives, the risky products that were at the center of AIG’s collapse, in the shadows of the ‘over the counter’ market.” ~ Joseph Stiglitz
“The greatest corrosive of traditional values is not liberal judges, but features of the modern economy that conservatives ignore. These include the unrestrained mobility of capital with its disruptive effects on neighborhoods, cities, and towns; the concentration of power in large corporations unaccountable to the communities they serve; and an inflexible workplace that forces working men and women to choose between advancing their careers and caring for their children.” ~ Michael J. Sandel
“If the person without the goods is starving, and the person with them has plenty, then morality demands a split: the money is needed more by the starving. The starvation of the poor demands redistribution from the rich.” ~ Simon Blackburn
“For two decades, economists concerned with inequality have debated the precise role global competition, changing technologies, sectoral balances, and other strictly economic factors have played in generating the worsening trends. Whatever the final resolution of the technical debate over how much weight to assign different forces, the important truth…is that none shows the least sign of weakening…There is very little doubt about what has happened to undermine liberal redistributive strategies.” ~ Gar Alperovitz
“Many governments are corrupt and unaccountable, but this does not lead us to the conclusion that the private sector is a better guarantor of rights. Rather, it reinforces our resolve to press accountability on governments at every level.” ~ John Cavanaugh and Jerry Mander
“First, there is very little evidence that inequality-related trends have ever been significantly altered because of progressive political strategies per se— that is, efforts to enact reforms in normal, non-crisis times.… Even in the best of times, the capacity of traditional political strategies to achieve major impact on their own in “normal” circumstances has been far weaker than many commonly acknowledge. Second, a close examination of traditional conventional measures makes it obvious that in its current path, real inequality will continue to worsen, no matter what.” ~ Gar Alperovitz
“It is accepted that capitalist economic systems as a matter of course produce highly unequal distributions of income. It is hoped that ‘after the fact’ – after the basic income flows have been generated – progressive taxation, combined with various social programs, can alter the underlying patterns.” ~ Gar Alperovitz
“Conceivably, the classical liberal ideals is expressed and developed in their libertarian socialist form are achievable. But if so, by a popular revolutionary movement, rooted in a wide strata of the population and committed to the elimination of repressive and authoritarian institutions— state and private. To create such a movement is a challenge we face and must meet if there is to be an escape from contemporary barbarism.” ~ Noam Chomsky
“One might imagine a system of workers’ councils, consumers’ councils, commune assemblies, regional federations, and so on, with the kind of representation that’s direct and revocable…. (calls this libertarian socialism, and notes it thinks that “state power must be eliminated in favor of democratic organization of industrial society.” ~ Noam Chomsky
“…[C]lassical liberal thought seeks to eliminate social fetters and to replace them with social bonds, and not with competitive greed, predatory individualism, and not, of course, with corporate empires— state or private.” ~ Noam Chomsky
“We meet in the midst of a nation brought to the verge of moral, political, and material ruin. Corruption dominates the ballot-box, the Legislatures, the Congress, and touches even the ermine of the bench… The fruits of the toil of millions are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few, unprecedented in the history of mankind; and the possessors of these, in turn, despise the Republic and endanger liberty. From the same prolific womb of governmental injustice we breed the two great classes – tramps and millionaires.” ~ People’s Party platform, 1892
These quotes about economic justice are connected with the blog Economic Justice: My Ideal Society Described.