Top 100 Robert Reich Quotes
#1. We need to expand Social Security to prevent the looming retirement crisis, and we can do it simply by asking billionaires to pay their fair share.
Robert Reich
#2. 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.
Robert Reich
#3. In truth, government has been good to Wall Street and big business.
Robert Reich
#4. When I was a kid, the bigger boys would pick on me. So I got an idea that I would make alliances with older boys, like just one or two, who would be my protectors.
Robert Reich
#5. Liberals are concerned about the concentration of wealth because it almost inevitably leads to a concentration of power that undermines democracy.
Robert Reich
#6. The federal budget deficit isn't the nation's major economic problem and deficit reduction shouldn't be our major goal.
Our problem is lack of good jobs and sufficient growth, and our goal must be to revive both.
Robert Reich
#7. 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.
Robert Reich
#8. 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.
Robert Reich
#9. 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.
Robert Reich
#10. As to the meaning of "corporate social responsibility," Friedman and I would agree: If a certain action improves the corporation's bottom line, there's no point in labeling it "socially responsible." It's just good business.
Robert Reich
#12. 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.
Robert Reich
#13. No economy can continue to function when the vast middle class and everybody else don't have enough purchasing power to buy what the economy is capable of producing without going deeper and deeper into debt.
Robert Reich
#14. I grew up poor. My mother raised a family of four on between $9,000 and $15,000 a year.
Robert Reich
#15. If we give up on politics, we're done for. Powerlessness is a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Robert Reich
#16. Government subsidies to elite private universities take the form of tax deductions for people who make charitable contributions to them.
Robert Reich
#17. It's not government's business what people do in their private bedrooms.
Robert Reich
#18. 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.
Robert Reich
#19. The presidency is probably the loneliest office in America. Regardless of your friends, regardless of how good your marriage is, regardless of anything, you are alone there at the top.
Robert Reich
#20. Bankruptcy laws allow companies to smoothly reorganize, but not college graduates burdened by student loans.
Robert Reich
#21. If you ever want to get a sense of your own personal failure, look at yourself trying to get across a point that nobody is listening to and the situation gets worse and worse.
Robert Reich
#22. In reality, most of America's poor work hard, often in two or more jobs.
Robert Reich
#23. Look, any cut in greenhouse gases is going to be expensive for American consumers, who are in no mood to bear additional costs.
Robert Reich
#24. Limits should be placed on how big big banks can become.
Robert Reich
#26. 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.
Robert Reich
#27. You can't create a political movement out of pabulum.
Robert Reich
#28. Corporations are not people, despite what the Supreme Court says, and they don't need or deserve handouts.
Robert Reich
#29. True patriotism isn't cheap. It's about taking on a fair share of the burden of keeping America going.
Robert Reich
#30. Universities have to tame their budgets, especially for student amenities that have nothing to do with education.
Robert Reich
#31. Averages don't always reveal the most telling realities. You know, Shaquille O'Neal and I have an average height of 6 feet.
Robert Reich
#32. Cynicism is the last refuge of those who don't want to do the work of creating a better society.
Robert Reich
#33. Corporations aren't people. They have no brains, no consciences, no capacity for intent or guilt.
Robert Reich
#34. 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.
Robert Reich
#35. Well-trained and dedicated employees are the only sustainable source of competitive strength.
Robert Reich
#36. 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.
Robert Reich
#37. To be a skilled politician, you have to be genuine. To really make it work, you have to love people. You have to love the contact, you have to love the energy, you've gotta love inspiring people and getting their adulation in return. You can't separate what's genuine from what is necessary.
Robert Reich
#38. Cynicism is the largest obstacle to social change. Cynicism is dangerous because people throw up their hands and say, "Well it's not possible. Why should I even try?"
Robert Reich
#39. 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.
Robert Reich
#40. The rich would do better with a smaller share of a rapidly growing economy then they're doing now with a large share of an economy that is barely growing at all.
Robert Reich
#41. Those who take their money abroad in an effort to avoid paying American taxes should lose their American citizenship.
Robert Reich
#42. 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.
Robert Reich
#43. 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.
Robert Reich
#44. Bill Clinton was a very, very good speaker. But like many people who are great speakers and great thinkers and have a lot of energy and ambition, he talked too much.
Robert Reich
#45. You can't inspire people if you are going to be uninspiring.
Robert Reich
#46. One thing I've learned from 35 years in the classroom is that people learn best when they are laughing, when they are emotionally hit, that it's both the brain and the heart.
Robert Reich
#47. Radical conservatives want to police bedrooms.
Robert Reich
#48. Only if everyone buys insurance can insurers afford to cover people with preexisting conditions or pay the costs of catastrophic diseases.
Robert Reich
#49. If you give up on democracy, you might as well give up on everything.
Robert Reich
#50. The job creators are members of America's vast middle class and the poor, whose purchases cause businesses to expand and invest.
Robert Reich
#51. The problem right now is jobs. The problem right now is the economy and economic growth.
Robert Reich
#52. Regardless of how you interpret the facts, you have to come to the conclusion that inequality is widening in the US and in almost every other country.
Robert Reich
#53. 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?
Robert Reich
#54. If leadership is about anything, it's about leading. Not leading people back to where they already are, because they don't need that. They're already there.
Robert Reich
#55. Cutting taxes is not bad. But if you cut taxes on the wealthy, which is what they wanted to do, you're not helping people who need better schools and better infrastructure and healthcare. You're basically robbing the middle class and the poor to provide tax cuts to the rich.
Robert Reich
#56. Any bank that is too big to fail is too big. Period.
Robert Reich
#57. 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.
Robert Reich
#58. Britain's is traditionally a rigid class society.
Robert Reich
#59. There is a deep desire to change the power structure.
Robert Reich
#60. 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.
Robert Reich
#61. 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.
Robert Reich
#62. The largest party in America, by the way, is neither the Democrats nor the Republicans. It's the party of non-voters.
Robert Reich
#63. Too many young people graduate laden with debts that take years, if not decades, to pay off.
Robert Reich
#64. I mean, you hear the word 'globalization' over and over and over again. Globalization, globalization, globalization. Rarely has a word gone so directly from obscurity to meaninglessness without any intervening period of coherence.
Robert Reich
#65. 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.
Robert Reich
#66. 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.
Robert Reich
#67. 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.
Robert Reich
#68. 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.
Robert Reich
#69. We can't know in advance what history is going to say, but I would be utterly amazed and surprised if American invasion to Iraq from the beginning of its inception, were not judged to be an utter failure and a terrible, terrible thing for the world.
Robert Reich
#70. We are creating a one size fits all system that needlessly brands many young people as failures, when they might thrive if offered a different education whose progress was measured differently. Paradoxically we're embracing standardized tests just when the economy is eliminating standardized jobs.
Robert Reich
#71. Every organization, no matter who it is, just follow the money.
Robert Reich
#72. The key to understanding the rise in inequality isn't technology or globalization. It's the power of the moneyed interests to shape the underlying rules of the market.
Robert Reich
#73. Drug company payments to doctors are a small part of a much larger strategy by Big Pharma to clean our pockets.
Robert Reich
#74. 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.
Robert Reich
#75. 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.
Robert Reich
#77. 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?
Robert Reich
#78. 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.
Robert Reich
#79. 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.
Robert Reich
#80. If you want to be a change agent, you have to ready to fail.
Robert Reich
#81. 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.
Robert Reich
#82. 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.
Robert Reich
#83. There will always be a business cycle, and white-collar workers will get hit in the next recession like they always do in recessions.
Robert Reich
#84. Public employees should have the right to bargain for better wages and working conditions, just like all employees do.
Robert Reich
#85. 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.
Robert Reich
#86. The only sure way to stop excessive risk taking on Wall Street so you don't risk losing your job, or your savings or your home, is to put an end to the excessive economic and political power of Wall Street by busting up the big banks.
Robert Reich
#87. 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.
Robert Reich
#88. Average working people need more fresh starts. Big corporations, banks, and Donald Trump need fewer.
Robert Reich
#89. We're the richest economy in the history of the world. For the majority of Americans not to get the benefits of this extraordinarily prosperous economy, there's something fundamentally wrong.
Robert Reich
#90. 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.
Robert Reich
#91. Socialism for rich bankers and capitalism for everyone else.
Robert Reich
#92. Media outlets that are exploiting Ebola because they want a sensational story and politicians using it to their own ends ought to be ashamed.
Robert Reich
#93. 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.
Robert Reich
#94. America is one of few advanced nations that allow direct advertising of prescription drugs.
Robert Reich
#95. In journalism, there are only two stories - "Oh, the wonder of it," and "Oh, the shame of it."
Robert Reich
#96. It is impossible to fight bullies merely by saying they're going too far.
Robert Reich
#97. 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.
Robert Reich
#98. 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.
Robert Reich
#99. Bill Clinton was a great politician. Bill Clinton loved a fight. He was willing to fight. But he also wanted to be loved. He wanted to be admired.
Robert Reich
#100. A lot of attention has been going to social values - abortion, gay rights, other divisive issues - but economic values are equally important.
Robert Reich
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