Wealth Gap Quotes

“Won't reparations divide us? Not any more than we are already divided. The wealth gap merely puts a number on something we feel but cannot say - that American propserity was ill-gotten and selective in its distribution. What is needed is an airing of family secrets, a settling with old ghosts. What is needed is a healing of the American psyche and the banishment of white guilt.”
― Ta-Nehisi Coates, Un conto ancora aperto

“The Iron Law of Meritocracy states that eventually the inequality produced by a meritocratic system will grow large enough to subvert the mechanisms of mobility. Unequal outcomes make equal opportunity impossible….Those who are able to climb up the ladder will find ways to pull it up after them, or selectively lower it down to allow their friends, allies and kin to scramble up.”
― Christopher L. Hayes, Twilight of the Elites: America After Meritocracy

“This protest spoke to me—the humanist principles felt connected to the minimalist essence of long-distance hiking, the desire to transcend the smoke and mirrors of our country’s established society, revealing what remains in all its splendor: the magnificent, resilient human soul.”
― Aspen Matis, Your Blue Is Not My Blue: A Missing Person Memoir

“Walking back home that afternoon, I felt more aware of the poverty and opulence on every sidewalk—we brushed past a raven-haired lady with a thousand-dollar handbag and a skinny child with toeless shoes begging for change.”
― Aspen Matis, Your Blue Is Not My Blue: A Missing Person Memoir

“Thus when people object, as they do, to me and others pointing out that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer—by commenting that wealth is not finite, that statist and globalist solutions and handouts will merely strip the poor of their human dignity and vocation to work, and that all this will encourage the poor toward a sinful envy of the rich, a slothful escapism, and a counterproductive reliance on Caesar rather than God—I want to take such commentators to refugee camps, to villages where children die every day, to towns where most adults have already died of AIDS, and show them people who haven't got the energy to be envious, who aren't slothful because they are using all the energy they've got to wait in line for water and to care for each other, who know perfectly well that they don't need handouts so much as justice. I know, and such people often know in their bones, that wealth isn't a zero-sum game, but reading the collected works of F. A. Hayek in a comfortable chair in North America simply doesn't address the moral questions of the twenty-first century.”
― N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

“Very poor children learn to beg, lie and steal from their parents – they would hardly survive otherwise. Prosperous parents tell their children that nobody should lie, steal or kill, and that idleness and gambling are vices. They then send them to schools where they suffer if they do not disguise their thoughts and feelings and are taught to admire killers and stealers like Achilles and Ulysses, William the Conqueror and Henry the Eighth. This prepares them for life in a land where rich people use acts of parliament to deprive the poor of homes and livelihoods, where unearned incomes are increased by stock-exchange gambling, where those who own most property work least and amuse themselves by hunting, horse-racing and leading their country into battle.”
― Alasdair Gray, Poor Things

“Walking downtown in a cool October drizzle, Justin and I were offered an umbrella by a middle-aged stranger in an olive bowler hat. “It’s extra,” he said, bowing down slightly. “I brought it because I knew someone would need it.” A palpable force seemed to be unifying the people of the city, the sudden camaraderie of solidarity.

Arriving in the Financial District, we saw a tent city in Manhattan’s heart. A thousand people were gathered on the grass of Zuccotti Park, wielding cardboard signs with powerful reminders: “None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free” and “We are the 99%.” Chatting with the campers, individuals who strongly reminded us of thru-hikers from the trail, we learned that this patchwork rally was a coordinated response to our country’s growing wealth gap.”
― Aspen Matis, Your Blue Is Not My Blue: A Missing Person Memoir

“The large rooms of which you are so proud are in fact your shame. They are big enough to hold crowds—and also big enough to shut out the voice of the poor.... There is your sister or brother, naked, crying! And you stand confused over the choice of an attractive floor covering. —Ambrose, fourth century.”
― Thomas O'Gorman, Advent Sourcebook

“What keeps you from giving now? Isn't the poor person there? Aren't your own warehouses full? Isn't the reward promised? The command is clear: the hungry person is dying now, the naked person is freezing now, the person in debt is beaten now-and you want to wait until tomorrow? "I'm not doing any harm," you say. "I just want to keep what I own, that's all." You own! You are like someone who sits down in a theater and keeps everyone else away, saying that what is there for everyone's use is your own...If everyone took only what they needed and gave the rest to those in need, there would be no such thing as rich and poor. After all, didn't you come into life naked, and won't you return naked to the earth?
The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry person; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the person who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the person with no shoes; the money which you put in the bank belongs to the poor. You do wrong to everyone you could help, but fail to help. —Basil, fourth century.”
― Thomas O'Gorman, Advent Sourcebook

“A society that aims for equality before liberty will end up with neither equality nor liberty.”
― Milton Friedman

“Rich, modern countries have common traits that make them different from poor, traditional countries, which also share common traits. Differences in wealth can lead to conflict between societies, but the evidence suggests that this mainly occurs when rich and powerful societies try to conquer and colonize poor and traditional societies.”
― Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

“There is a huge shift to rewiring people from working class families to pursue education that is cheap, but profitable for corporations and corporatized educational institutions, and that is just enough for them to be trained as malleable workers at the service of the ruling class and their needs. We are in a country in which the few rich and privileged get quality education, while everyone else gets cheap training and acquire mediocre skills in the form of certificates of completion. The children of the rich go to Yale and Harvard and other big names, while those from poor working-class families get certificates in this or that skill that they can add to their resumes to be desired by employers.

[From “On the Great Resignation” published on CounterPunch on February 24, 2023]”
― Louis Yako

“The wealth gap between America's richest and poorest families has doubled in the past thirty years. If the systems don't reform, they will eventually collapse under the weight of their corruption or be torn down by masses who will rightfully view them only as architects of their oppression.”
― Wajahat Ali, Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American

“Bankruptcy favors the rich and shames the poor.”
― William Castano-Bedoya, We the Other People: The Beggars of the Mercury Lights

“Despite the smile on my face, I was deeply shaken by the fact that one bachelor, who was pretending to court me, would put me and my family through all of this.”
― Zoiy G. Galloay, The Royal Matchmaking Competition: Princess Zoyechka

“I was crossing the border of a simple crush into the fields of love.”
― Zoiy G. Galloay, The Royal Matchmaking Competition: The Fate of the Empire

“We never imagined any of this would happen. This was far worse than what I went through during my RMC”
― Zoiy G. Galloay, The Royal Matchmaking Competition: The Fate of the Empire

“Passion was written in her eyes. Devotion in her breath. And willingness in her soul. It touched me deeply. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say her feelings for me were powerful. So too were mine. They had come upon me slowly, not like the abrupt passion I had felt for the Ogarzian princess.”
― Zoiy G. Galloay, The Royal Matchmaking Competition: The Fate of the Empire

“Zadkiel, I understand your position dating several girls at once, and I have assumed you love Esperanza more than the rest of us. But I don’t care. You haven’t eliminated me yet, which means I still have a chance with you.” She pushed me back on the grass and straddled me. A ferocious look came to her eyes. “So kiss the others for all I care, but don’t hold back with me; because right now, all I want is to kiss you so passionately that you’ll forget Esperanza even exists.”
― Zoiy G. Galloay, The Royal Matchmaking Competition: The Fate of the Empire