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Capitalism Quotes

Browse 2965 quotes about Capitalism.

Capitalism Quotes

“What is the elephant in all our rooms? It is the global triumph of capitalism. Democracy is fiercely disputed. Freedom is under threat even in old-established democracies such as Britain. Western supremacy is on the skids. But everyone does capitalism. Americans and Europeans do it. Indians do it. Russian oligarchs and Saudi princes do it. Even Chinese communists do it... Karl Marx would be turning in his grave. Or perhaps not, since some of his writings eerily foreshadowed our era of globalised capitalism. His prescription failed but his description was prescient.”

Writing Doe Would Be Rooms Democracy Capitalism Threat Western Graves Eras Chinese Triumph Britain Description Communist Elephants Prescriptions Saudis Supremacy

Author:Timothy Garton Ash

“One growing threat to the stability of the U.S. economy, and therefore to its capability to continue to direct the global order, paradoxically emerges from its success in establishing capitalism around the world.”

World Order Economy Growing Capitalism Direct Threat Around The World Stability Capability

Author:Herbert Schiller

“The biggest threat to this country isn't the Russians. It's our own inability to make democracy or capitalism work.”

Country Democracy Capitalism Threat Inability

Author:Phil Donahue

“Financial capacity and political perspicacity are inversely correlated. Long-run salvation by men of business has never been highly regarded if it means disturbance of orderly life and convenience in the present. So inaction will be advocated in the present even though it means deep trouble in the future. Here, at least equally with Communism, lies the threat to Capitalism. It is what causes men who know that things are going quite wrong to say that things are fundamentally sound.”

Ifs Knows Men Mean Long Running Political Lying Causes Sound Trouble Capitalism Capacity Salvation Threat Financial Communism Long Runs Convenience Inaction Orderly Disturbance

Book:The great crash, 1929

Source: The great crash, 1929

“Both we and the Soviets face the common threat of nuclear destruction and there is no likelihood that either capitalism or communism will survive a nuclear war.”

War Faces Common Capitalism Destruction Threat Nuclear Communism Nuclear War Likelihood Nuclear Destruction

Author:John Kenneth Galbraith

“I think what we are confronting now is a new war of ideas. It's not communism versus capitalism, but it is authoritarianism versus democracy and representative government. And that is a threat that here in Europe, they feel acutely. They've seen their countries interfered with, bombarded by cyber-attacks, by Russian propaganda, indeed, by Russian troops.”

“The systemic incompatibility between free-market capitalism and the quality of democratic life and respect for human rights has to be modified to take account of such contextual variables as wartime, security threats, and the societal balance between entrepreneurial and working classes.”

Humans Quality Class Rights Security Balance Capitalism Accounts Threat Democratic Human Rights Working Class Free Market Entrepreneurial Variables Wartime Incompatibility Free Market Capitalism

Author:Richard A. Falk

“We can't change the fossil fuel companies' behavior in isolation from the rest of the industrial system. As long as they have customers, they're going to continue to operate, whether or not we divest of their stock. However, divesting might be helpful in terms of disrupting the story that what these companies do is perfectly okay. This situation differs from apartheid in a key regard though: racial equality in South Africa was no threat whatsoever to capitalism as we know it. Ending the fossil fuel era is a much deeper change.”

Long Term Situation Behavior Capitalism Okay Threat Isolation Helpful South Africa Fossil Fuel Apartheid

Author:Charles Eisenstein

“Economic power is exercised by means of a positive, by offering men a reward, an incentive, a payment, a value; political power is exercised by means of a negative, by the threat of punishment, injury, imprisonment, destruction. The businessman's tool is values; the bureaucrat's tool is fear.”

Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z

“Our minds tell us, and history confirms, that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power. Government is necessary to preserve our freedom, it is an instrument through which we can exercise our freedom; yet by concentrating power in political hands, it is also a threat to freedom. Even though the men who wield this power initially be of good will and even though they be not corrupted by the power they exercise, the power will both attract and form men of a different stamp.”

Men Mind Different Hands Government Form Political Exercise Capitalism Instruments Threat Preserves Concentration Stamps Good Will Concentrating Power Government

Book:Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition

Source: Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition

“Political freedom means the absence of coercion of a man by his fellow men. The fundamental threat to freedom is power to coerce, be it in the hands of a monarch, a dictator, an oligarchy, or a momentary majority. The preservation of freedom requires the elimination of such concentration of power to the fullest possible extent and the dispersal and distribution of whatever power cannot be eliminated — a system of checks and balances.”

Source: Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition

“On the one hand, there has been a remarkable expansion of the total production and productivity of food production, and on the other hand an extraordinarily skewed distribution system, substituting medium-run threats for short-term threats for the majority of the world's population, particularly the 50 to 80 percent at the bottom.”

Source: Capistalist Civilisation

“Freedom is a rare and delicate plant. Our minds tell us, and history confirms, that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power.”

Mind Capitalism Threat Plant Concentration Delicate

Book:Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition

Source: Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition

“The very essence of capitalism is under threat as business is now seen as a personal wealth accumulator. We have to bring this world back to sanity and put the greater good ahead of self-interest. We need to fight very hard to create an environment out there that is more long term focussed and move away from short termism.”

World Needs Long Self Hard Moving Fighting Term Interest Wealth Environment Greater This World Capitalism Essence Threat Long Term Sanity Short Term Self Interest Greater Good Personal Wealth

Author:Paul Polman

“Although I have made a fortune in the financial markets, I now fear that the untrammeled intensification of laissez-faire capitalism and the spread of market values into all areas of life is endangering our open and democratic society. The main enemy of the open society, I believe, is no longer the communist but the capitalist threat.”