Public Good Quotes - Page 5

• Capitalism is based on individual rights - not on the sacrifice of the individual to the 'public good' of the collective.

  Ayn Rand

  Sacrifice, Rights, Individual

  Ayn Rand, Nathaniel Branden, Alan Greenspan, Robert Hessen (1986). “Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal”, p.191, Penguin

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• As a society we can't live without moral considerations. We do have to protect the public good. And markets are not designed to do that, so we need a political process.

  George Soros

  Political, Needs, Moral

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• Higher education isn't just a personal investment. It's a public good that pays off in a more competitive workforce and better-informed and engaged citizens. Every year, we spend nearly $100 billion on corporate welfare, and more than $500 billion on defense spending. Surely ensuring the next generation can compete in the global economy is at least as important as subsidies for big business and military adventures around the globe. In fact, I think we can and must go further - not just making public higher education tuition-free, but reinventing education in America as we know it.

  Robert Reich

  Education, Military, Adventure

  "Ten Ideas to Save the Economy #5: How to Reinvent Education" by Robert Reich, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 21, 2015.

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• Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.

  James Madison

  Party, Rights, Government

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2015). “The Federalist Papers: A Collection of Essays Written in Favour of the New Constitution”, p.47, Coventry House Publishing

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• To be interested in the public good we must be disinterested, that is, not interested in goods in which our personal selves are wrapped up.

  George H. Mead

  Self, Disinterest, Not Interested

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• Out of politics comes more uproar than progress. It is indeed surprising how little, comparatively, this noisy department of human affairs contributes to the world's prosperity. Political commotions upon the grandest scale, political events of astounding suddenness, political characters of the greatest ability, abound, but still, permanent results are rare, and we look in vain for a measure of public good corresponding in extent to the hideous rout which ushers it in. Progress but turns upon its pillow, and goes to sleep again.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Character, Sleep, Political

  Christian Nestell Bovee (1862). “Intuitions and Summaries of Thought”, p.93

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• The demise of higher education as a public good is also evident in light of the election of a number of right-wing politicians who are cutting funds for state universities and doing everything they can to turn them in training centers to fill the needs of corporations. This new and intense attack on both the social state and higher education completely undermines the public nature of what education is all about.

  Henry Giroux

  Cutting, Wings, Numbers

  "Higher Education Under Attack". Interview with C. Cryn Johannsen, www.truth-out.org. April 22, 2011.

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• Ultimately, the current argument is "not having net neutrality will hurt innovation," and you can make that argument, but I would rather make the public good argument, which is not just about innovation or nurturing new companies that will add to the nation's GDP, it's actually about creating a democratic public sphere.

  Astra Taylor

  Hurt, Gdp, Creating

  Source: therumpus.net

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• A vibrant, rich, growing corpus of public-domain books is a vital public good - similar to parks, the infrastructure of basic services, and other hallmarks of any advanced society.

  Tom Peters

  Book, Growing, Parks

  Source: www.researchgate.net

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• The trade of advertising is now so near to perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement. But as every art ought to be exercized in due subordination to the public good, I cannot but propose it as a moral question to these masters of the public ear, whether they do not sometimes play too wantonly with our passions.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Passion, Play

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1836). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: with an essay on his life and genius”, p.395

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• People are so docile right now. It is almost as if good government means when the politicians lie to us for our own good, for the public good, and bad government is when politicians lie for their own selfish interests.

  James Bovard

  Selfish, Lying, Mean

  "Talkin' to America" with Aaron Zelman, jpfo.org.

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• Leadership is for those who love the public good and are endowed and trained to administer it.

  Thornton Wilder

  Thornton Wilder (2009). “The Bridge of San Luis Rey and Other Novels, 1926-1948”

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• The most powerful force possessed by the individual citizen is her own government. ... Government is the only organized mechanism that makes possible that level of shared disinterest known as the public good.

  John Ralston Saul

  Powerful, Government, Individuality

  John Ralston Saul (2012). “The Unconscious Civilization”, p.74, Simon and Schuster

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• Baseball, like some other sports, poses as a sacred institution dedicated to the public good, but it is actually a big, selfish business with a ruthlessness that many big businesses would never think of displaying.

  Jackie Robinson

  Sports, Baseball, Selfish

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• Many faculty retreated into academic specializations and an arcane language that made them irrelevant to the task of defending the university as a public good, except for in some cases a very small audience. This has become more and more clear in the last few years as academics have become so insular, often unwilling or unable to defend the university as a public good, in spite of the widespread attacks on academic freedom, the role of the university as a democratic public sphere, and the increasing reduction of knowledge to a saleable commodity, and students to customers.

  Henry Giroux

  Academic Freedom, Years, Lasts

  "Higher Education Under Attack: An Interview With Henry A. Giroux". Interview with C. Cryn Johannsen, www.truth-out.org. April 22, 2011.

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• Many university presidents assume the language and behavior of CEOs and in doing so they are completely reneging on the public mission of the universities. The state is radically defunding public universities and university presidents, for the most part, rather than defending higher education as a public good, are trying to privatize their institutions in order to remove them from the political control of state governments. This is not a worthy or productive strategy.

  Henry Giroux

  Government, Order, Political

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• University presidents should be loud and forceful in defending the university as a social good, essential to the democratic culture and economy of a nation. They should be criticizing the prioritizing of funds for military and prison expenditures over funds for higher education. And this argument should be made as a defense of education, as a crucial public good, and it should be taken seriously. But they aren't making these arguments.

  Henry Giroux

  Military, Taken, President

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• We need to figure how to defend higher education as a public good. If we can't do that, we're in trouble.

  Henry Giroux

  Needs, Trouble, Figures

  "Higher Education Under Attack". Interview with C. Cryn Johannsen, www.truth-out.org. April 22, 2011.

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• I feel like we're stuck in the former mode of reacting because that's what gains traction in Washington. But I really believe we need a robust public good argument. Net neutrality is not just about creating the next Instagram or Farmville or whatever.

  Astra Taylor

  Believe, Creating, Needs

  Source: therumpus.net

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• Against the tyranny of forgetting, educators, young people, social activists, public intellectuals, workers and others can work to make visible and oppose the long legacy and current reality of state violence and the rise of the punishing state. Such a struggle suggests not only reclaiming, for instance, education as a public good but also reforming the criminal justice system and removing the police from schools.

  Henry Giroux

  Struggle, School, Reality

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• We like to have a point of view in our stories, not an obvious moral, but a worthwhile theme. ... All we are trying to do is give the public good entertainment. That is all they want.

  Walt Disney

  Fun, Views, Giving

  "The Gospel According to Disney : Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust". Book by Mark I. Pinsky, 2004.

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• The fantastical idea of virtue and the public good being a sufficient security to the state against the commission of crimes, which you say you have heard insisted on by some, I assure you was never mine.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Ideas, Virtue, Crime

  Thomas Jefferson, Jean M. Yarbrough (1963). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.142, Hackett Publishing

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