American Capitalism Quotes

• Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Fun, Business, Men

  Attributed by Michael Albert, "Moving Forward: Programme for a Participatory Economy", (p. 128), 2000.

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  The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Freedom, Independent

  Sir Winston Churchill (1965). “The Churchill Wit”

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• Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.

  Bertrand Russell

  Exercise, Liberty, Principles

  Bertrand Russell (1960). “Sceptical Essays”

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• There is talk of the failure of socialism, and where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia, and in Latin America?

  Fidel Castro

  Latin, Reality, Eugenics

  "SIEMPRE Interviews Castro on Revolution, Future". Interview with Beatriz Pages Rebollar, lanic.utexas.edu. June 4, 1991.

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• This American system of ours,call it Americanism,call it capitalism,call it what you will,gives each and every one of us a great opportunity if we seize it with both hands and make the most of it.

  Al Capone

  Opportunity, Hands, History

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• The challenge for capitalism is that the things that breed trust also breed the environment for fraud.

  James Surowiecki

  Challenges, Environment, Fraud

  "The crowd is smarter than you think". Interview with Todd Leopold, www.cnn.com. July 14, 2004.

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• In the Soviet Union, capitalism triumphed over communism. In this country, capitalism triumphed over democracy.

  Fran Lebowitz

  Country, Democracy, Literature

  FaceBook post by Fran Lebowitz from Jul 27, 2012

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• Chicago is the product of modern capitalism, and, like other great commercial centers, is unfit for human habitation.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Cities, Chicago, Modern

  "What's the Matter with Chicago?" by Eugene V. Debs in "Chicago Socialist", www.marxists.org. October 25, 1902.

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• The problem with K-12 education is socialism and the solution is capitalism.

  Peter Brimelow

  Eugenics, Problem, Socialism

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• Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.

  Fidel Castro

  Cold War, Capitalism

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden.

  Orson Scott Card

  Funny, Work, Sarcasm

  Orson Scott Card (2013). “Homebody: A Novel”, p.33, Harper Collins

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• I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in.

  Smedley Butler

  Boys, Cities, Oil

  Smedley Darlington Butler (2016). “War Is a Racket: The Antiwar Classic by America's Most Decorated Soldier”, p.17, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• The promise of American capitalism is that it makes people richer, freer and more independent. But since the introduction of Fed, the currency in which Americans keep score has so addled the figures, we scarcely know if we are winning or losing. The dollar we knew as a child - in the 1950's - is only worth a tenth as much today.

  Bill Bonner

  Children, Independent, Winning

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• The advantage of the free market system is that people invest their capital, they create jobs by investing their capital, and hopefully they get a return on that investment. I don't think there's anything wrong with good old American capitalism.

  Steve Stivers

  Jobs, Thinking, People

  "Exclusive Interview with Steve Stivers, Challenger of OH-15". Interview with Mytheos Holt, www.nationalreview.com. September 9, 2010.

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• American capitalism finds its sharpest and most expressive reflection in the American cinema.

  Sergei Eisenstein

  Reflection, Cinema, Film

  Sergei Eisenstein (1964). “Film form: essays in film theory, and The film sense”

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• American capitalism has helped finance the communist take over of the world. Somebody is going to answer to God for this.

  Kent Hovind

  Answers, World, Finance

  "Unmasking the False Religion of Evolution". Book by Kent Hovind, 1996.

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• The American capitalists are richer and stronger than their counterparts in other lands. They are also younger and more ignorant, and therefore more inclined to seek a rough settlement of difficulties without diplomatic subtlety and finesse. All that does not change the fact that American capitalism operates according to the same laws as the others, is confronted with the same fundamental problems, and is headed toward the same catastrophe.

  James P. Cannon

  Law, Land, Ignorant

  "Fascism and The Workers’ Movement". The Militant, www.marxists.org. March-April 1954.

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• At this late stage in the history of American capitalism I'm not sure I know how much testimony still needs to be presented to establish the relation between profit and theft.

  Lewis H. Lapham

  Needs, Profit, Stage

  Lewis H. Lapham (1989). “Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion”

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• Sharia has become an increasingly significant force in American capitalism, thanks to the embrace by Wall Street and the U.S. government of so-called Sharia-Compliant Finance. Indeed, this country's taxpayers now own the largest purveyor of sharia-compliant insurance products in the world: AIG.

  Frank Gaffney

  Country, Wall, Government

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• Self-dealing, essentially, occurs when managers run companies to line their own pockets instead of those of the companies' owners. It's been a perennial problem in American capitalism and became a real dilemma when America moved toward a model in which corporations would be run by professional managers who had only small ownership stakes.

  James Surowiecki

  Running, Real, Self

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• Speaking as a New Yorker, I found it a shocking and terrifying event [9/11], particularly the scale of it. At bottom, it was an implacable desire to do harm to innocent people. It was aimed at symbols: the World Trade Center, the heart of American capitalism, and the Pentagon, the headquarters of the American military establishment.

  Edward Said

  Military, Heart, People

  Source: www.progressive.org

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• If you're going to dedicate your career to ranting about the excesses of American capitalism, you probably shouldn't weigh 450 pounds.

  Greg Giraldo

  Careers, Excess, Pounds

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• I think the most important factor in getting out of the recession actually is just the regenerative capacity of - of American capitalism.

  Warren Buffett

  Thinking, Important, Capacity

  "Warren Buffett on Recession, Taxing the Rich, and Capitalism's 'Regenerative Capacity'". Interview with Becky Quick, www.cnbc.com. September 22, 2010.

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• Buffett's uncommon urge to chronicle made him a unique character in American life, not only a great capitalist but the Great Explainer of American capitalism. He taught a generation how to think about business, and he showed that securities were not just tokens like the Monopoly flatiron, and that investing need not be a game of chance. It was also a logical, commonsensical enterprise, like the tangible businesses beneath. He stripped Wall Street of its mystery and rejoined it to Main Street -- a mythical or disappearing place, perhaps, but one that is comprehensible to the ordinary American.

  Roger Lowenstein

  Wall, Character, Thinking

  Roger Lowenstein (2013). “Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist”, p.425, Random House

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• The lifeblood of the economy is that the banking community is a circulatory system for American capitalism.

  Anthony Scaramucci

  Community, Banking, Economy

  "What?! Ex-Congressman Barney Frank Endures Tough Interview...on National Public Radio!" by Jack Coleman, www.newsbusters.org. November 22, 2016.

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