A Quote by Milton Friedman
The important issue is not how much inequality there is but how much opportunity there is for individuals to get out of the bottom classes and into the top. If there is enough movement upward, people will accept the efficiency of the markets. If you have opportunity, there is a great tolerance for inequality. That has been the saving grace of the American system.
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America has tolerated inequality because people think they can get ahead. If you have immobility on top of inequality, then people are not going to be happy campers. If you're stuck on the bottom and there just isn't much churning in society and you're stuck there through your adulthood, that's not a nice life to look forward to.
Government doesn't have to be the enemy, but too much government has produced a new kind of inequality in America: opportunity inequality.
I always tell people, it's never too late to start saving for retirement. It's not that important how much you have already saved. What's important is that you start saving. And save as much as you can. You will be amazed at how quickly it will build up.
It's very hard to persuade a young person who has seen the Great Recession, who has seen all the problems with inequality, to tell them inequality is not important and that markets are always efficient. They'd think you're crazy.
I believe that education is the civil rights issue of our generation. And if you care about promoting opportunity and reducing inequality, the classroom is the place to start. Great teaching is about so much more than education; it is a daily fight for social justice.
Inequality hardens society into a class system. Inequality divides us from one another... Inequality undermines democracy.
I think the stress on income inequality is something that every American should take seriously, we have got to figure out how we're going to provide more economic opportunity - good jobs with rising incomes - and I'm excited to work with Senator Sanders in doing that.
It's important for people to believe in themselves. It's important for young girls to have the opportunity to excel and promote themselves, and learn how to communicate and that they can be individuals, yet accomplish so much. The Girl Scouts and other organizations like them make that so important, so vital. Girls are given the opportunity very early in life to give them that confidence in themselves. It's crucial for organizations to support young women.
True education makes for inequality; the inequality of individuality, the inequality of success, the glorious inequality of talent, of genius.
It is true that globalization has fueled greater income inequality. But much of this increase should be welcomed, not condemned. There is nothing inherently bad about inequality. Whether it is bad depends on how it comes about and what it does.
Let there be no mistake, Sen Sanders, his campaign and the vigorous debate that we've had about how to raise incomes, how to reduce inequality, increase upward mobility, has been very good for the Democratic Party and for America.
Through much of its history, the US did not have high inequality as compared with Europe. Less so, in fact. That began to change in the industrial age, reaching a peak in 1928, after the forceful destruction of the labor movement and crushing of independent thought. Largely as a result of labor mobilization, inequality declined during the Great Depression, a tendency continuing through the great growth period of regulated capitalism in the early postwar decades.
I look for people who have raw intelligence and a great work ethic and loyalty, and I can quickly identify people who have the right ingredients. But sometimes it is more difficult to get them to accept the fact that they can take on increasing responsibility. Oftentimes individuals will decide how far [they] go by how much work they're willing to put in and how quick they are to ask for help. Too many people have this deep-seated fear that if they ask for help, they will be thought less of.
We need to ask the moral questions: Do I have a right to be rich? And do I have a right to be content living in a world with so much poverty and inequality? These questions motivate us to view the issue of inequality as central to human living.
Today, the top one-tenth of 1% owns nearly as much wealth as the bottom 90%. The economic game is rigged, and this level of inequality is unsustainable. We need an economy that works for all, not just the powerful.
At the close of life the question will be not how much have you got, but how much have you given; not how much have you won, but how much have you done; not how much have you saved, but how much have you sacrificed; how much have you loved and served, not how much were you honored.
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