Guess quote

Robert Reich [1946-0] American

Rank: 101
Economist, Former United States Secretary of Labor

Robert Bernard Reich is an American political commentator, economist, professor, and author. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997.

Politics, Society, Anger, Equality, Faith, Government, Knowledge, Leadership, Medical, Memorial Day, Patriotism, Positive, Religion, Strength, Technology

Quote	Tags	Rank
Globalization and free trade do spur economic growth, and they lead to lower prices on many goods.		101
True patriotism isn't cheap. It's about taking on a fair share of the burden of keeping America going.	Memorial Day, Patriotism	102
Average working people need more fresh starts. Big corporations, banks, and Donald Trump need fewer.		103
Technology is changing so fast that knowledge about specifics can quickly become obsolete. That's why so much of what technicians learn is on the job.	Knowledge, Technology	104
Community colleges are great bargains. They avoid the fancy amenities four-year liberal arts colleges need in order to lure the children of the middle class.		105
What are called 'public schools' in many of America's wealthy communities aren't really 'public' at all. In effect, they're private schools, whose tuition is hidden away in the purchase price of upscale homes there, and in the corresponding property taxes.		106
News and images move so easily across borders that attitudes and aspirations are no longer especially national. Cyber-weapons, no longer the exclusive province of national governments, can originate in a hacker's garage.		107
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and the rest of the Ivy League are worthy institutions, to be sure, but they're not known for educating large numbers of poor young people.		108
A society - any society - is defined as a set of mutual benefits and duties embodied most visibly in public institutions: public schools, public libraries, public transportation, public hospitals, public parks, public museums, public recreation, public universities, and so on.	Society	109
You can't inspire people if you are going to be uninspiring.		110
The largest party in America, by the way, is neither the Democrats nor the Republicans. It's the party of non-voters.	Politics	111
There is a crisis of public morality. Instead of policing bedrooms, we ought to be doing a better job policing boardrooms.		112
Standing up to bullies is the hallmark of a civilized society.	Society	113
One tax dodge often used by multi-national companies is to squirrel their earnings abroad in foreign subsidiaries located in countries where taxes are lower.		114
Radical conservatives want to police bedrooms.		115
It's not government's business what people do in their private bedrooms.	Government	116
Rather than subsidize 'American' exporters, it makes more sense to subsidize any global company - to the extent it's adding to its exports from the United States.		117
The faith that anyone could move from rags to riches - with enough guts and gumption, hard work and nose to the grindstone - was once at the core of the American Dream.	Faith	118
Median wages of production workers, who comprise 80 percent of the workforce, haven't risen in 30 years, adjusted for inflation.		119
The liberal ideal is that everyone should have fair access and fair opportunity. This is not equality of result. It's equality of opportunity. There's a fundamental difference.	Equality	120
Our moral authority is as important, if not more important, than our troop strength or our high-tech weapons. We are rapidly losing that moral authority, not only in the Arab world but all over the world.	Strength	121
More people are killed by stray bullets every day in America than have been killed by Ebola here. More are dying because of poverty and hunger.		122
Most financiers, corporate lawyers, lobbyists, and management consultants are competing with other financiers, lawyers, lobbyists, and management consultants in zero-sum games that take money out of one set of pockets and put it into another.		123
Before the rise of the nation-state, between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries, the world was mostly tribal. Tribes were united by language, religion, blood, and belief. They feared other tribes and often warred against them.	Religion	124
A leader is someone who steps back from the entire system and tries to build a more collaborative, more innovative system that will work over the long term.		125
We do not want to live in a theocracy. We should maintain that barrier and government has no business telling someone what they ought to believe or how they should conduct their private lives.		126
The only way to grow the economy in a way that benefits the bottom 90 percent is to change the structure of the economy. At the least, this requires stronger unions and a higher minimum wage.		201
Money buys the most experienced teachers, less-crowded classrooms, high-quality teaching materials, and after-school programs.		202
It's true that redistributing income to the needy is politically easier in a growing economy than in a stagnant one.		203
Evidence suggests jobs are crucial not only to economic well-being but also to self-esteem.		204
Walmart is so huge that a wage boost at Walmart would ripple through the entire economy, putting more money in the pockets of low-wage workers. This would help boost the entire economy - including Walmart's own sales.		205
Those at the top would do better with a smaller share of a booming economy that elicits a positive politics than they will do with an ever-larger share of an anemic economy that fuels the politics of anger.	Anger, Politics, Positive	206
Over the long term, the only way we're going to raise wages, grow the economy, and improve American competitiveness is by investing in our people - especially their educations.		207
There will always be a business cycle, and white-collar workers will get hit in the next recession like they always do in recessions.		208
America is one of few advanced nations that allow direct advertising of prescription drugs.		209
The job creators are members of America's vast middle class and the poor, whose purchases cause businesses to expand and invest.		210
You might say those who can't repay their student debts shouldn't have borrowed in the first place. But they had no way of knowing just how bad the jobs market would become.		211
As income from work has become more concentrated in America, the super rich have invested in businesses, real estate, art, and other assets. The income from these assets is now concentrating even faster than income from work.		212
Bankruptcy laws allow companies to smoothly reorganize, but not college graduates burdened by student loans.		213
We need a national infrastructure bank to rebuild our crumbling highways and water and sewer systems, thereby putting additional people back to work.		214
Our young people - their capacities to think, understand, investigate, and innovate - are America's future.		215
To get back to the kind of shared prosperity and upward mobility we once considered normal will require another era of fundamental reform, of both our economy and our democracy.		216
By the mid-1950s, more than a third of all America workers in the private sector were unionized. And the unions demanded and received a fair slice of the American pie.		217
Your most precious possession is not your financial assets. Your most precious possession is the people you have working there, and what they carry around in their heads, and their ability to work together.		218
Centrism is bogus.		219
A lot of attention has been going to social values - abortion, gay rights, other divisive issues - but economic values are equally important.		220
Government subsidies to elite private universities take the form of tax deductions for people who make charitable contributions to them.		221
Sugary drinks are blamed for increasing the rates of chronic disease and obesity in America. Yet efforts to reduce their consumption through taxes or other measures have gone nowhere. The beverage industry has spent millions defeating them.		222
As digital equipment replaces the jobs of routine workers and lower-level professionals, technicians are needed to install, monitor, repair, test, and upgrade all the equipment.		223
If we give up on politics, we're done for. Powerlessness is a self-fulfilling prophesy.		224
Patagonia, a large apparel manufacturer based in Ventura, California, has organized itself as a 'B-corporation.' That's a for-profit company whose articles of incorporation require it to take into account the interests of workers, the community, and the environment, as well as shareholders.		225
Even if there's no way to stop U.S. corporations from shedding their U.S. identities and becoming foreign corporations, there's no reason they should retain the privileges of U.S. citizenship.		226
The generosity of the super-rich is sometimes proffered as evidence they're contributing as much to the nation's well-being as they did decades ago when they paid a much larger share of their earnings in taxes.		301
As long as the big banks are allowed to remain big, their political leverage over Washington will remain big. And as long as their political leverage remains big, the taxpayer and economic tab for the next mess they create will be big.		302
If we want corporations to act differently, we have to force them to do so through laws that are fully enforced and through penalties higher than the economic benefits of thwarting the laws.		303
Yes, the rich will find ways to avoid paying more taxes, courtesy of clever accountants and tax attorneys. But this has always been the case, regardless of where the tax rate is set.		304
You can't create a political movement out of pabulum.		305
Liberals are concerned about the concentration of wealth because it almost inevitably leads to a concentration of power that undermines democracy.		306
I wish it were simply a nightmare, but I think that any reasonable person watching American politics would come to the conclusion that a second Bush administration would in fact incorporate a more radicalized version of what we've seen in the first administration.		307
We never used to blink at taking a leadership role in the world. And we understood leadership often required something other than drones and bombs. We accepted global leadership not just for humanitarian reasons, but also because it was in our own best interest. We knew we couldn't isolate ourselves from trouble. There was no place to hide.	Leadership	308
Media outlets that are exploiting Ebola because they want a sensational story and politicians using it to their own ends ought to be ashamed.		309
America spends a fortune on drugs: more per person than any other nation on earth, even though Americans are no healthier than the citizens of other advanced nations.		310
Conservatives believe the economy functions better if the rich have more money and everyone else has less. But they're wrong. It's just the opposite.		311
In America, people with lots of money can easily avoid the consequences of bad bets and big losses by cashing out at the first sign of trouble.		312
Economies are risky. Some industries rise, and others implode, like housing. Some places get richer, and others drop, like Atlantic City. Some people get new jobs that pay better, many lose their jobs or their wages.		313
Official boundaries are often hard to see. If you head north on Woodward Avenue, away from downtown Detroit, you wouldn't know exactly when you left the city and crossed over into Oakland County - except for a small sign that tells you.		314
As we segregate by income into different communities, schools in lower-income areas have fewer resources than ever.		315
The monied interests are doing what they do best - making money. The rest of us need to do what we can do best - use our voices, our vigor, and our votes.		316
In the 1980s, corporate raiders began mounting unfriendly takeovers of companies that could deliver higher returns to their shareholders - if they abandoned their other stakeholders.		317
What someone is paid has little or no relationship to what their work is worth to society.		318
Increasingly, corporate nationality is whatever a corporation decides it is.		319
In reality, most of America's poor work hard, often in two or more jobs.		320
We don't have to sit by and watch our meritocracy be replaced by a permanent aristocracy, and our democracy be undermined by dynastic wealth.		321
The 'free market' is the product of laws and rules continuously emanating from legislatures, executive departments, and courts.		322
Tax laws favor capital over labor, giving capital gains a lower rate than ordinary income. The rich get humongous mortgage interest deductions while renters get no deduction at all.		323
America's real business leaders understand unless or until the middle class regains its footing and its faith, capitalism remains vulnerable.		324
Nations are becoming less relevant in a world where everyone and everything is interconnected. The connections that matter most are again becoming more personal.		325
Much of what's called 'public' is increasingly a private good paid for by users - ever-higher tolls on public highways and public bridges, higher tuitions at so-called public universities, higher admission fees at public parks and public museums.		326
Corporations aren't people. They have no brains, no consciences, no capacity for intent or guilt.		401
Not only do unemployment benefits help families who are hurting; they also put money into their pockets that they'll then spend - and their spending will keep other Americans in jobs.		402
Universities have to tame their budgets, especially for student amenities that have nothing to do with education.		403
In 1968, the sanitation workers of Memphis tried to form a union. The city resisted. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to support them. That was where he lost his life.		404
Teachers, social workers, public lawyers who bring companies to justice, government accountants who try to make sure money is spent as it should be - all need at least four years of college.		405
Public employees should have the right to bargain for better wages and working conditions, just like all employees do.		406
The curious thing is Americans don't mind individual mandates when they come in the form of payroll taxes to buy mandatory public insurance. In fact, that's the system we call Social Security and Medicare, and both are so popular politicians dare not touch them.		407
The Tea Party is but one manifestation of a widening perception that the game is rigged in favor of the rich and powerful.		408
A Democratic president should propose a major permanent tax reduction on the middle class and working class. I suspect most of the public would find this attractive.		409
Those who take their money abroad in an effort to avoid paying American taxes should lose their American citizenship.		410
The Tea Party grew out of indignation over the Wall Street bailout - an indignation shared by the vast majority of Americans. But the Tea Party ended up directing its ire at government rather than at big business and Wall Street.		411
During three decades from 1947 to 1977, the nation implemented what might be called a basic bargain with American workers. Employers paid them enough to buy what they produced.		412
The silent majority really is a liberal majority, even though the word liberal has taken a real beating over the last 20 years by radical conservatives.		413
Public fear isn't something to be played with.		414
Drug company payments to doctors are a small part of a much larger strategy by Big Pharma to clean our pockets.		415
Detroit is really a model for how wealthier and whiter Americans escape the costs of public goods they'd otherwise share with poorer and darker Americans.		416
Too many young people graduate laden with debts that take years, if not decades, to pay off.		417
Political scientists after World War II hypothesized that even though the voices of individual Americans counted for little, most people belonged to a variety of interest groups and membership organizations - clubs, associations, political parties, unions - to which politicians were responsive.		418
The only way back toward a democracy and economy that work for the majority is for most of us to get politically active once again, becoming organized and mobilized.		419
Some argue shareholder capitalism has proven more efficient. It has moved economic resources to where they're most productive, and thereby enabled the economy to grow faster.		420
Instead of worrying about who's American and who's not, here's a better idea: Create incentives for any global company to do what we'd like it to do in the United States.		421
We already have an annual wealth tax on homes, the major asset of the middle class. It's called the property tax. Why not a small annual tax on the value of stocks and bonds, the major assets of the wealthy?		422
Freedom is the one value conservatives place above all others, yet time and again, their ideal of freedom ignores the growing imbalance of power in our society that's eroding the freedoms of most people.		423
Obviously, personal responsibility is important. But there's no evidence that people who are poor are less ambitious than anyone else. In fact, many work long hours at backbreaking jobs.		424
I'm all in favor of supporting fancy museums and elite schools, but face it: These aren't really charities as most people understand the term.		425
Public institutions are supported by all taxpayers and are available to all.		426
As public schools deteriorate, the upper-middle class and wealthy send their kids to private ones. As public pools and playgrounds decay, the better-off buy memberships in private tennis and swimming clubs. As public hospitals decline, the well-off pay premium rates for private care.		501
Walmart isn't your average mom-and-pop operation. It's the largest employer in America. As such, it's the trendsetter for millions of other employers of low-wage workers.		502
Limits should be placed on how big big banks can become.		503
The only way to make sure no bank is too big to fail is to make sure no bank is too big.		504
It is hard to bite the hands that feed you, especially when you are competing for food.		505
On the Republican playing field, Republicans always win.		506
I'm not one of those who thinks the only way to fix what's wrong with American education is to throw more money at it. We also need to do it much better.		507
When times are tough, public employees should have to make the same sacrifices as everyone else.		508
Only if everyone buys insurance can insurers afford to cover people with preexisting conditions or pay the costs of catastrophic diseases.		509
Can we please agree that in the real world, corporations exist for one purpose and one purpose only - to make as much money as possible, which means cutting costs as much as possible?		510
No company can be expected to build a nuclear reactor, an oil well, a coal mine, or anything else that's one hundred percent safe under all circumstances. The costs would be prohibitive. It's unreasonable to expect corporations to totally guard against small chances of every potential accident.		511
When I was a small boy, I was bullied more than most, mainly because I was a foot shorter than everyone else.		512
It is impossible to fight bullies merely by saying they're going too far.		513
Medical costs are soaring because our health-care system is totally screwed up. Doctors and hospitals have every incentive to spend on unnecessary tests, drugs, and procedures.	Medical	514
So why don't nurses do home visits to Americans with acute conditions? Hospitals aren't paid for it.		515
Tea Partiers hate government more than they hate the national debt. They refuse to reduce that debt with tax increases, even with tax increases on the wealthy, because a tax increase doesn't reduce the size of government.		516
In truth, government has been good to Wall Street and big business.		517

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