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Capitalism Quotes

Browse 2965 quotes about Capitalism.

Capitalism Quotes

“Other things, like capitalism, free enterprise, the economy, currency, the market, are not forces of nature, we invented them. They are not immutable and we can change them.”

Force Economy Capitalism Enterprise Currency Free Enterprise Forces Of Nature Biosphere

Author:David Suzuki

“All the evils, abuses, and iniquities, popularly ascribed to businessmen and to capitalism, were not caused by an unregulated economy or by a free market, but by government intervention into the economy.”

Government Evil Economy Capitalism Abuse Businessman Free Market Intervention Iniquity Government Intervention

Book:Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

Source: Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

“The truth is that capitalism has not only multiplied population figures, but at the same time, improved the people's standard of living in an unprecedented way. Neither economic thinking nor historical experience suggests that any other social system could be as beneficial to the masses as capitalism. The results speak for themselves. The market economy needs no apologists and propagandists. It can apply to itself the words of Sir Christopher Wren's epitaph in St. Paul's: Si monumentum requires, circumspice.”

“There is no way to turn off this global economy, nor should one try. Every previous expansion of global capitalism has led to greater prosperity across the world.”

World Way Should Trying Turns Economy Greater Capitalism Prosperity Expansion Turn Off Global Economy

Author:Fareed Zakaria

“I'm passionate about restoring the efficacy of American democracy, making capitalism sustainable, prioritizing advances in technology, and seizing the opportunities to use that kind of innovation to help usher in a new economy that doesn't rely on carbon-spewing fossil fuels.”

Kind Helping Use Opportunity Technology Economy Democracy Capitalism Innovation Passionate Rely Fuel Carbon Fossils Fossil Fuel Restoring Prioritize Efficacy American Democracy Seizing

Author:Al Gore

“Unless there is free and fair competition, there can't be healthy economic development. And what we have in Burma now is not an open-market economy that allows free and fair competition, but a form of colonialism makes a few people very, very wealthy. It's what you would crony capitalism.”

People Form Economy Economic Development Healthy Capitalism Fairs Competition Wealthy Colonialism Economic Development Market Economy Burma Cronies Crony Capitalism

Author:Aung San Suu Kyi

“Psychotherapy makes every problem a subjective, inner problem. And that's not where the problems come from. They come from the environment, the cities, the economy, the racism. They come from architecture, school systems, capitalism, exploitation. They come from many places that psychotherapy does not address. Psychotherapy theory turns it all on you: you are the one who is wrong.”

Doe Problem School Turns Cities Economy Environment Theory Racism Capitalism Architecture Addresses Exploitation Subjective Psychotherapy School System Architecture School

Author:James Hillman

“I think companies trying to exercise a so-called inversion should be hit with an exit tax. So I want to change behaviors, and I am deeply distressed about quarterly capitalism, because I think it is causing businesses to make decisions that are not helping the long-term profitability of American corporations or the success of our economy.”

Thinking Want Should Trying Long Helping Term Decision Company Economy Exercise Taxes Behavior Capitalism Corporations Long Term Exit Profitability Inversions

Author:Hillary Clinton

“This is what happens under capitalism - as long as corporations and the super rich own the economy and the politicians, every new generation has to fight hard just to defend itself.”

Long Hard Happens Fighting Economy Rich Generations Politician Capitalism Corporations New Generation

Author:Kshama Sawant

“I think Russians today have a distorted picture of capitalism, liberal democracy and market economy.”

Thinking Today Economy Democracy Capitalism Eyebrows Market Economy Liberal Democracy

Author:Garry Kasparov

“Once we link up and network, there will be new institutions, new beginnings, and a change in the economy because capitalism is destroying many people's lives. It's just one leap to think in a different way.”

People Thinking Way Different Economy Capitalism Institutions Different Ways Just One Leap Links Destroying New Beginnings

Author:Mairead Corrigan

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

Community Economy Capitalism Banking American Capitalism Circulatory System

Author:Anthony Scaramucci

“Ingeniously, capitalism discovered that the economy may be moved not by satisfying existing needs, but by creating new ones.”

Needs May Economy Creating Capitalism Moved Satisfying

Author:Zygmunt Bauman

“Here's what I do believe very strongly: that once capitalism comes into existence, once it creates this mythology of a stingy nature, then that myth has to be exorcised. In other words, we have to get out of people's heads the idea that without a market economy, without egotism, competition, rivalry and self-interest, without all the technological advances that [Karl] Marx imputed to capitalism, we have to eliminate the feeling that we would sink into some kind of barbarism.”

“Capitalism has created a situation called scarcity. And that scarcity is not natural, it's socially induced. Along with that sense of scarcity, or feeling of scarcity, is a feeling of economic insecurity. Along with that is a feeling of deprivation... And unless we can demonstrate that that feeling is not justified technologically, we will not be able to speak intelligently to the great majority of people and reorganize our economy so that we really know what needs are rational and human and what have been created, almost fetishisticaly, by the capitalist economy.”

“Post-1989 capitalism was far more unfriendly to economic and social rights than was the prior capitalism seeking to win public approval as a more compassionate economic arrangement than that which prevailed in state socialist economies.”

States Winning Social Economy Rights Economic Capitalism Seeking Posts Compassionate Approval Socialist Arrangements Unfriendly Socialist Economy

Author:Richard A. Falk

“A person without an Apple watch is perfectly content with his present watch but when he sees his friends buying the watch, he will hanker for an Apple watch. The endless cycle of wanting, getting, and wanting again is part of the plot of Capitalism. It is the way Capitalism creates jobs. The only antidote is Buddhism that holds that people might be happier by renouncing desire rather than by striving to satisfy desire. But then how can the economy create enough jobs in a Buddhist society of "less is more."”

People Way Persons Enough Might Jobs Desire Watches Economy Buddhism Capitalism Strive Endless Buddhist Apples Buying Plot Cycles Antidote Less Is More Apple Watch

Author:Philip Kotler

“If you establish, or reestablish, local economies on the right scale and with the right standard, then politics would come right as a matter of course. I don't know what you'd call the result - probably not capitalism or socialism.”

Ifs Knows Matter Courses Results Economy Standards Capitalism Scales Socialism Locals

Author:Wendell Berry

“I often think that the reason capitalism hasn't completely destroyed everything is that a huge amount of anti-capitalist endeavor goes on, from labors of love, nurture, friendship, and barter to gift economies and different kinds of exchanges, not just one alternate model but a whole host of other ways in which we engage with each other and with the world that aren't financial and debt-based.”

“I don't know who you would blame for this, whether Ricardo or others, but we created a fictitious economic theory to praise a rentier or rent-derived, interest-derived capitalism that countered productive forces within the economy.”

Economy Economic Capitalism Praise Blame Productive

Author:Chris Hedges

“Our country, our economy - don't doubt me on this - our economy is based on capitalism. Barack Obama's stated reason for being inspired by Reverend Wright was his speech, 'White man's greed runs a world in need.' That inspired Obama, 'White man's greed runs a world in need.' That's the real American dream. Working hard you will get ahead. But you can't have that if you want to create a permanent underclass. You simply cannot have people getting ahead. It destroys the whole notion of a permanent underclass.”

People World Real Country Reason Dream Running Economy Doubt Capitalism Inspired Greed Barack American Dream Doubt Me

Author:Rush Limbaugh

“I think capitalism will not disappear, but it's going to increasingly not be the exclusive arbiter of economic life. It's going to have to find value in interacting with the sharing economy on many levels. And this hybrid system that's already emerging among millennials is going to be a mature system where, by midcentury, part of the day will be in the capitalist market, part of the day in the sharing economy, depending on your marginal costs.”

Thinking Values Economy Economic Capitalism Disappear Mature Capitalist Emerging Hybrid Arbiter

Author:Jeremy Rifkin

“My task over the last two years hasn't just been to stop the bleeding. My task has also been to try to figure out how do we address some of the structural problems in the economy that have prevented more Googles from being created.”

Trying Years Two Problem Lasts Economy Figures Capitalism Tasks Addresses Two Years Google Bleeding

Author:Barack Obama

“'Capitalism' is a dirty word for many intellectuals, but there are a number of studies showing that open economies and free trade are negatively correlated with genocide and war.”

War Numbers Economy Study Capitalism Trade Dirty Genocide Free Trade Dirty Words

Author:Steven Pinker

“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.”

Liberty Principles Economy Exercise Capitalism Sacred Tyranny Appeals Fortunate Unfortunate Maxims American Capitalism Unfortunate Circumstances

Book:Sceptical Essays

Source: Sceptical Essays

“Having what I call crony capitalism, where you take money from successful small businesses, spend it in Washington on favored industries, on favored individuals, picking winners and losers in the economy, that's not pro-growth economics. That's not entrepreneurial economics. That's not helping small businesses. That's cronyism, that's corporate welfare.”

Helping Individual Growth Economy Successful Industry Capitalism Economics Winner Corporate Welfare Loser Small Business Entrepreneurial Winner And Loser Cronies Cronyism Crony Capitalism

Author:Paul Ryan

“The love of economy is the root of all virtue.”

Economy Virtue Capitalism Roots

Book:George Bernard Shaw: Collected Articles, Lectures, Essays and Letters: Thoughts and Studies from the Renowned Dramaturge and Author of Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Pygmalion, Arms and The Man, Saint Joan, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion

Source: George Bernard Shaw: Collected Articles, Lectures, Essays and Letters: Thoughts and Studies from the Renowned Dramaturge and Author of Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Pygmalion, Arms and The Man, Saint Joan, Caesar and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion

“Capitalism knows only one color: that color is green; all else is necessarily subservient to it, hence, race, gender and ethnicity cannot be considered within it.”

Knows Race Economy Color Capitalism Green Gender Libertarian Ethnicity Subservient Race Ethnicity Race And Ethnicity

Author:Thomas Sowell

“If the bringing of children into the world is today an economic burden, it is because the social system is inadequate; and not because God’s law is wrong. Therefore the State should remove the causes of that burden. The human must not be limited and controlled to fit the economic, but the economic must be expanded to fit the human.”

Ifs World Should Humans Children States Today Law Social Causes Economy Economic Fit Capitalism Burden Remove Controlled Preacher Expanding Raising Children Inadequate Social Systems

Author:Fulton J. Sheen

“What is called 'capitalism'is basically a system of corporate mercantilism, with huge and largely unaccountable private tyrannies exercising vast control over the economy, political systems, and social and cultural life, operating in close cooperation with powerful states that intervene massively in the domestic economy and international society.”

States Political Social Powerful Economy Society Huge Exercise Capitalism International Tyranny Corporate Accountability Cooperation Political Systems Economic Globalization

Book:Language and Politics

Source: Language and Politics

“The nature of the economic system should be a matter for public choice, and free market capitalism should not be accepted without any discussion of the rich variety of alternatives ... Unlike civil laws, economic laws are imposed on people with all the authority of immutable laws of nature. But the economy is created by people, supported by government intervention, regulation, statute and subsidy, and implemented in such a way that it gives substantial wealth and power to a privileged few, while the majority face a life of relentless work, stress and periodic financial insecurity.”

“Capitalism and socialism are two distinct patterns of social organization. Private control of the means of production and public control are contradictory notions and not merely contrary notions. There is no such thing as a mixed economy, a system that would stand midway between capitalism and socialism.”

Mean Two Social Economy Capitalism Organization Notion Patterns Productions Contrary Socialism Contradictory Midway Social Organization Capitalism And Socialism Mixed Economy

Author:Ludwig von Mises

“Tyranny is the political corollary of socialism, as representative government is the political corollary of the market economy.”

Government Political Economy Capitalism Tyranny Socialism Representatives Market Economy Representative Government

Book:Planning for Freedom: Let the Market System Work : a Collection of Essays and Addresses

Source: Planning for Freedom: Let the Market System Work : a Collection of Essays and Addresses

“The desire for an increase of wealth can be satisfied through exchange, which is the only method possible in a capitalist economy, or by violence and petition as in a militarist society, where the strong acquire by force, the weak by petitioning.”

Desire Strong Force Wealth Economy Violence Capitalism Weak Increase Method Satisfied Socialism Acquire Capitalist Petitions Capitalist Economy

Book:Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist

Source: Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist

“But we don't have an example of a democratic society existing in a socialist economy - which is the only real alternative to capitalism in the modern world.”

World Real Economy Modern Example Capitalism Democratic Alternatives Socialist Modern World Democratic Society Socialist Economy

Author:Peter L. Berger

“The rules of workplace democracy are founded in solidarity and mutual trust. They are at the core of a historic process which promises to introduce a new economy, and thereby a new society, after capitalism.”

Process Economy Democracy Promise Capitalism Core Mutual Introducing Solidarity Workplace Historic Mutual Trust

Book:After Capitalism: From Managerialism to Workplace Democracy

Source: After Capitalism: From Managerialism to Workplace Democracy

“In the usual (though certainly not in every) public decision on economic policy, the choice is between courses that are almost equally good or equally bad. It is the narrowest decisions that are most ardently debated. If the world is lucky enough to enjoy peace, it may even one day make the discovery, to the horror of doctrinaire free-enterprisers and doctrinaire planners alike, that what is called capitalism and what is called socialism are both capable of working quite well.”

“Viewed as a means to the end of political freedom, economic arrangements are important because of their effect on the concentration or dispersion of power. The kind of economic organization that provides economic freedom directly, namely, competitive capitalism, also promotes political freedom because it separates economic power from political power and in this way enables the one to offset the other”

Source: Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition

“Capitalism drives the employers to do their worst to the employed, and the employed to do the least for them. And it boasts all the time of the incentive it provides to both to do their best! . . . The reason the Capitalist system has worked so far without jamming for more than a few months at a time, and then only in places, is that it has not yet succeeded in making a conquest of human nature so complete that everybody acts on strictly business principles.”

Humans Reason Principles Economy Worst Human Nature Months Capitalism Capitalist Employed Conquest Boast Incentives Employers

Author:George Bernard Shaw

“It had been held that the economic system, any capitalist system, found its equilibrium at full employment. Left to itself, it was thus that it came to rest. Idle men and idle plant were an aberration, a wholly temporary failing. Keynes showed that the modern economy could as well find its equilibrium with continuing, serious unemployment. Its perfectly normal tendency was to what economists have since come to call an underemployment equilibrium.”

Source: The Essential Galbraith

“No politician can praise unemployment or inflation, and there is no way of combining high employment with stable prices that does not involve some control of income and prices. Otherwise the struggle for more consumption and more income to sustain it-a struggle that modern corporations, modern unions and modern democracy all facilitate and encourage-will drive up prices. Only heavy unemployment will then temper this upward thrust. Not many wish to confront the truth that the modern economy gives a choice only between inflation, unemployment, or controls.”

“Growth is the mantra of our society because the economy can't remain healthy without growth.Impregnable monopolies aside (and these are few), profits are both the hallmark of capitalism and its Achilles heel, for no business can permanently maintain its prices much above its costs. There is only one way in which profits can be perpetuated; a business-or an entire economy-must grow.”

Way Grows Growth Economy Healthy Cost Capitalism Profit One Way Our Society Heels Monopoly Mantras Hallmark Achilles Achilles Heel

Author:Robert Heilbroner

“Capitalism is chronically unstable.Boom and bust has always marked capitalism in the United States. There were panics in 1785, 1791, 1819, 1857, 1869, 1873, 1907, 1929 and 1987.In economies and politics, as in war, an astonishing number of people die, like the man on the railway crossing, defending their right of way. This is a poorly developed instinct in Switzerland. No country so firmly avows the principles of private enterprise but in few have the practical concessions to socialism been more numerous and varied.”

“Capitalism or market economy is that system of social cooperation and division of labor that is based on private ownership of the means of production.”

Mean Social Economy Capitalism Labor Productions Division Cooperation Ownership Market Economy Division Of Labor

Book:Bureaucracy

Source: Bureaucracy

“It is inherent in the nature of the capitalistic economy that, in the final analysis, the employment of the factors of production is aimed only toward serving the wishes of consumers.”

Wish Economy Capitalism Finals Productions Factors Employment Consumers Analysis Serving Inherent Factors Of Production

Book:On the Manipulation of Money and Credit

Source: On the Manipulation of Money and Credit

“The market economy-capitalism-is a social system of consumers' supremacy.”

Social Economy Capitalism Consumers Supremacy Market Economy Social Systems

Book:Money, method, and the market process: essays

Source: Money, method, and the market process: essays

“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.”

“These days, government employees are better off in almost every area: pay, benefits, time off and security, on top of working fewer hours.”

Government Hours Pay Economy Security Benefits Capitalism Areas These Days Employee Thrive Fewer Better Off Time Off Government Employees

Author:Mortimer Zuckerman

“I am opposed to all forms of control; I am for an absolute laissez faire, free, unregulated economy. I am for the separation of the state and economics, just as we had separation of state and church, which led to peaceful coexistence among different religions...so the same applies to economics. If you separate the government from economics, if you do not regulate production and trade, you will have peaceful cooperation, and harmony and justice among men.”

“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.”

Government Results Liberty Economy Capitalism Disaster Cures Poison Interference Free Economy

Author:Ayn Rand