Capitalism Quotes - Page 8

• Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.

  Pope Francis

  Economic Inequality, Justice, People

  "The Joy of the Gospel: Evangelii Gaudium". Book by Pope Francis, w2.vatican.va. November 26, 2013.

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• The essence of capitalism is to turn nature into commodities and commodities into capital. The live green earth is transformed into dead gold bricks, with luxury items for the few and toxic slag heaps for the many. The glittering mansion overlooks a vast sprawl of shanty towns, wherein a desperate, demoralized humanity is kept in line with drugs, television, and armed force.

  Michael Parenti

  Nature, Money, Army

  "Against Empire". Book by Michael Parenti, May 1995.

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• Many pioneers of these industrial changes, it is true, became rich. But they acquired their wealth by supplying the public with motor cars, airplanes, radio sets, refrigerators, moving and talking pictures, and variety of less spectacular but no less useful innovations. These new products were certainly not an achievement of offices and bureaucrats.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Moving, Airplane, Talking

  Ludwig Von Mises (1985). “Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War”, Libertarian Press

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• The dynamics of capitalism is postponement of enjoyment to the constantly postponed future.

  Norman O. Brown

  Dynamics, Enjoyment, Postponement

  Norman O. Brown (2012). “Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History”, p.273, Wesleyan University Press

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• We have two evils to fight, capitalism and racism. We must destroy both racism and capitalism.

  Huey Newton

  Fighting, Two, Evil

  Huey P. Newton, Toni Morrison, Elaine Brown (2009). “To die for the people: the writings of Huey P. Newton”, City Lights Publishers

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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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• ..where effective competition can be created, it is a better way of guiding individual efforts than any other... regards competition as superior not only because it is in most circumstances the most efficient method known but even more because it is the only method by which our activities can be adjusted to each other without coercive or arbitrary intervention of authority.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Individual Effort, Competition, Arbitrary

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• WikiLeaks is designed to make capitalism more free and ethical.

  Julian Assange

  Wikileaks, Ethical

  "An Interview With WikiLeaks' Julian Assange". Interview with Andy Greenberg, www.forbes.com. November 29, 2010.

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• Capitalism tries for a delicate balance: It attempts to work things out so that everyone gets just enough stuff to keep them from getting violent and trying to take other people’s stuff.

  George Carlin

  Philosophy, Stupid People, Balance

  George Carlin (2002). “Napalm & Silly Putty”, Hyperion

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• So long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.

  Milton Friedman

  Games, Long, Competition

  Milton Friedman (2009). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.133, University of Chicago Press

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• The capitalist system of production is an economic democracy in which every penny gives a right to vote. The consumers are the sovereign people. The capitalists, the entrepreneurs, and the farmers are the people's mandatories. If they do not obey, if they fail to produce, at the lowest possible cost, what

  Ludwig von Mises

  People, Giving, Entrepreneur

  Ludwig Von Mises (1944). “Bureaucracy”

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• Capitalism is the only system that can make freedom, individuality, and the pursuit of values possible in practice. When I say 'capitalism,' I mean a pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire capitalism - with a separation of economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as a separation of state and church.

  Ayn Rand

  Mean, Practice, Individuality

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• All depressions are caused by government interference and the cure is always offered to take more of the poison that caused the disaster. Depressions are not the result of a free economy.

  Ayn Rand

  Government, Liberty, Poison

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• Nothing-was more degrading than for a woman to have to marry for a home. Love should be the sole reason. Surely those with a brain-to think, eyes to see and a mind-to reason must realise that the capitalist system must cease and a co-operative system prevail in its place.

  Vida Goldstein

  Love, Marriage, Women

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• The prudent capitalist will never adventure his capital . . . if there exists a state of uncertainty as to whether the Government will repeal tomorrow what it has enacted today.

  William Henry Harrison

  Adventure, Government, Law

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• The mine owners did not find the gold, they did not mine the gold, they did not mill the gold, but by some weird alchemy all the gold belonged to them!

  Bill Haywood

  Gold, Injustice, Mills

  "The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood". Book by Bill Haywood (p. 171), 1929.

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• The Communist Manifesto was correct but we see the privileges of the capitalist bourgeoisie yielding to democratic organizations. In my judgment success lies in a steady [peaceful] advance [rather] than in a catastrophic crash.

  Eduard Bernstein

  Success, Peace, Lying

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• The plundering of the human spirit by the market place is paralleled by the plundering of the earth by capital.

  Murray Bookchin

  Earth, Libertarian, Spirit

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• We’re living in an acquisitive capitalist society that is fundamentally anti-family and fundamentally uncomfortable with just enjoying being human. We’d rather shop than live, acquire than love and stare into a screen than hold each other.

  Frank Schaeffer

  Love, Life, Family

  "Sometimes Youthful Stupidity is a Better way to Find Happiness than Making Mature Choices" by Frank Schaeffer, www.huffingtonpost.com. September 11, 2014.

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• Democracy can hardly be expected to flourish in societies where political and economic power is being progressively concentrated and centralized. But the progress of technology has led and is still leading to just such a concentration and centralization of power.

  Aldous Huxley

  Power, Technology, Political

  Aldous Huxley, Robert S. Baker, James Sexton (2002). “Complete Essays: 1956-1963, and supplement, 1920-1948”, Ivan R. Dee Publisher

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• A people... who are possessed of the spirit of commerce, who see and who will pursue their advantages may achieve almost anything.

  George Washington

  People, Banking, May

  George Washington, John Clement Fitzpatrick, David Maydole Matteson (1784). “The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799”, p.473

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• The democratic process on which this nation was founded should not be restricted to the political process, but should be applied to the industrial operation as well.

  Albert Gallatin

  Political, Process, Should

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• There can be no return to prosperity while the government (of Ontario) believes that taking money from the people who have earned it and giving it away to the people who haven't, in exchange for their votes and regardless of merit, is the essence of fairness.

  Conrad Black

  Believe, Essence, Government

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• Production for sale in a market in which the object is to realize the maximum profit is the essential feature of a capitalist world-economy. In such a system production is constantly expanded as long as further production is profitable, and men constantly innovate new ways of producing things that will expand the profit margin.

  Immanuel Wallerstein

  Men, Long, World

  Immanuel Wallerstein (1979). “The Capitalist World-Economy”, p.15, Cambridge University Press

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• To be ignorant or unconvinced of one's own needs has become the unforgivable anti-social act. The good citizen is one who imputes standardized needs to himself with such conviction that he drowns out any desire for alternatives, much less the renunciation of need.

  Ivan Illich

  Ignorant, Desire, Needs

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