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Surplus Quotes

Browse 192 quotes about Surplus.

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Surplus Quotes

“Institutionalized rejection of differences is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people. As members of such an economy, we have all been programmed to respond to the human differences between us with fear and loathing and to handle that difference in one of three ways: ignore it, and if that is not possible, copy it if we think it is dominant, or destroy it if we think it is subordinate.”

PeopleIfsThinkingWayNeedsHumansThreeDifferencesEconomyMembersAbsolutesProfitHandleRejectionCopiesOutsidersDominantSubordinatesLoathingSurplusFear And LoathingThree Ways
Book:Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
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“Of all the art forms, poetry is the most economical. It is the one which is the most secret, which requires the least physical labor, the least material, and the one which can be done between shifts, in the hospital pantry, on the subway, and on scraps of surplus paper. ... poetry has been the major voice of poor, working class, and Colored women. A room of one's own may be a necessity for writing prose, but so are reams of paper, a typewriter, and plenty of time.”

WritingMayHas BeensArtDoneFormVoicePoorRoomsSecretClassPovertyMaterialsPaperMajorsLaborPlentyProsePoetry IsHospitalsWorking ClassSubwayScrapTypewritersSurplusPantry
Author:Audre Lorde
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“By elevating the dictum of the market to the role of the sole criterion of rationality and efficiency, economics denies even all "respectability" to the distinction between essential and non-essential consumption, between productive and unproductive labor, between actual and potential surplus.”

RolesEssentialsEconomicsLaborDenyDistinctionProductiveSoleConsumptionEfficiencyRationalityCriteriaSurplusRespectabilityElevatingUnproductive
Book:Political Econ of Growth
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“Because of the oil-and-water relationship governments have cultivated between ethics and political economy, speaking in plain terms - spelling it out as it is - as become foreign to the public. So here goes: When government sports a surplus, this implies that the political pickpockets have stolen more funds than they can possibly dream of spending. The property is not theirs to keep! Conversely, when deficits are reported, this means that the kleptomaniacs have not been able to steal sufficient funds to cover their profligacy.”

MeanDreamGovernmentAblePoliticalPoliticsSportsTermWaterEconomyEthicsPropertySpendingOilStealingSufficientFundStolenDeficitSpellingSurplusPolitical EconomyOil And Water
Author:Ilana Mercer
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“Though the man-apes often fought and wrestled one another, their disputes very seldom resulted in serious injuries. Having no claws or fighting canine teeth, and being well protected by hair, they could not inflict much harm on one another. In any event, they had little surplus energy for such unproductive behavior; snarling and threatening was a much more efficient way of asserting their points of view.”

MenWayWellsLittlesFightingEnergyViewsEventsSeriousHairBehaviorHarmPoint Of ViewTeethInjuryEfficientProtectedThreateningDisputesApesClawsSurplusCanineUnproductiveSnarling
Book:2001: A Space Odyssey
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“In addition to myself and a number of others, President Clinton talked about the deficit and the debt issue. And he pointed out, really, what I pointed out, which is that when he left office, we actually had projected surpluses for a long period of time, because when he put together his economic plan, he did it in a balanced way.”

WayLongTogetherLeftPresidentNumbersIssuesPlansEconomicPeriodsOfficeClintonDebtBalancedDeficitSurplusLong Periods Of TimePresident Clinton
Author:Chris Van Hollen
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“Large department stores, with their luxuriant abundance of canned goods, foods, and clothing, are like the primary landscape and the geometrical locus of affluence. Streets with overcrowded and glittering store windowsthe displays of delicacies, and all the scenes of alimentary and vestimentary festivity, stimulate a magical salivation. Accumulation is more than the sum of its products: the conspicuousness of surplus, the final and magical negation of scarcitymimic a new-found nature of prodigious fecundity.”

FoundStreetsProductsSceneFinalsStoresPrimariesLandscapeAbundanceDepartmentGoodsClothingsDisplayAccumulationDelicacySurplusAffluenceNegationProdigiousDepartment StoresFestivities
Author:Jean Baudrillard
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“The hippie is the scion of surplus value. The dropout can only claim sanctity in a society which offers something to be dropped out of--career, ambition, conspicuous consumption. The effects of hippie sanctimony can only be felt in the context of others who plunder his lifestyle for what they find good or profitable, a process known as rip-off by the hippie, who will not see how savagely he has pillaged intricate and demanding civilizations for his own parodic lifestyle.”

ValuesFeltProcessKnownCareersEffectsCivilizationOffersAmbitionClaimsLifestyleConsumptionProfitableRipHippieSanctityIntricateSurplusPlunderDropoutsConspicuous ConsumptionScions
Book:The Madwoman's Underclothes: Essays and Occasional Writings
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“The Indian is one of Nature's gentlemen--he never says or does a rude or vulgar thing. The vicious, uneducated barbarians, who form the surplus of overpopulous European countries, are far behind the wild man in delicacy of feeling or natural courtesy.”

MenDoeCountryFeelingsFormNaturalBehindsIndianGentlemanNativeNative AmericanRudeVulgarViciousCourtesyBarbariansDelicacySurplusUneducatedEuropean CountriesWild Man
Book:Roughing it in the Bush: Or, Life in Canada
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“Much of the pressure contemporary parents feel with respect to dressing children in designer clothes, teaching young children academics, and giving them instruction in sports derives directly from our need to use our children to impress others with our economic surplus. We find "good" rather than real reasons for letting our children go along with the crowd.”

NeedsGivingFeelsChildrenRealReasonUseYoungSportsParentEconomicTeachingClothesPressureOur ChildrenCrowdsContemporaryDesignerInstructionImpressDressingsYoung ChildrenSurplusPeer PressureDesigner Clothes
Book:Miseducation: preschoolers at risk
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“Hannah Arendt in her study of totalitarianism borrowed from Immanuel Kant the concept of radical evil, of evil that's so evil that in the end it destroys itself, it's so committed to evil and it's so committed to hatred and cruelty that it becomes suicidal. My definition of it is the surplus value that's generated by totalitarianism. It means you do more violence, more cruelty than you absolutely have to to stay in power.”

MeanEndsValuesEvilStudyViolenceConceptsHatredDefinitionsCommittedCrueltyRadicalSuicidalTotalitarianismBorrowedSurplus
Author:Christopher Hitchens
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“A canteen I remember vividly, and maybe one other thing, I can't remember. And I knew then that he had bought them in an army surplus store that day and he wanted to maybe enhance himself in my eyes, and say, "Well, yes, I have been in the army." Or [he] simply just didn't want to disappoint me. It could have been one or the other. But I knew that he had lied to me. And this filled me with a tremendous sort of anger towards him. At the same time, knowing he was trying to please me, so feeling good about him.”

WantTryingWellsHas BeensI CanFeelingsEyeWantedRememberKnowingPleaseArmyFilledStoresFeel GoodCould Have BeenLiedDisappointSurplusPlease MeLied To MeCanteen
Author:Paul Auster
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“The realization that I came to is that each citizen for himself or herself understands the economics, which is, "I better make more than I spend and I better put something aside for a rainy day, and I want to get a good idea about what to do with the surplus so that perhaps it can grow while I'm sleeping." And that that's capitalism. Everybody practices it, but half of the country - those on the left - deny that it's true.”

WantIdeasCountryLeftGrowsSleepHalfPracticeCitizensCapitalismEconomicsDenyRealizationGood IdeasRainyRainy DaySurplus
Author:David Mamet
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“Government can only do two things: It can beat people up and kill them. Or it can threaten to do so. When it seems to be doing something else - for example, handing out money or, say, surplus cheese - what's actually going on is that something has been taken away from one set of individuals by deadly force or the threat of deadly force, a hefty middleman's fee deducted, and whatever is left thrown to peasants delighted to receive stolen goods.”

PeopleHas BeensTwoSeemsGovernmentIndividualLeftForceTakenExampleBeatsThreatTwo ThingsThrownGoodsCheeseStolenPeasantsDelightedFeesSurplusMiddlemenDeadly Force
Author:L. Neil Smith
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“The man of wealth [should] consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds, which he is called upon to administer to produce the most beneficial results for the community - the man of wealth thus becoming the mere trustee and agent for his poorer brethren, bringing to their service his superior wisdom, experience and ability to administer, doing for them better than that they would or could do for themselves.”

MenShouldCommunityWealthAbilityResultsProduceHe ManBecomingMereSuperiorsAgentsFundRevenueBeneficialBrethrenSurplusTrusteesTrust FundsWisdom Experience
Author:Andrew Carnegie
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“So I'm not proposing anything radical. I just believe that anybody making over $250,000 a year should go back to the income tax rates we were paying under Bill Clinton. Back when our economy created nearly 23 million new jobs, the biggest budget surplus in history, and plenty of millionaires to boot. ... At the same time, most people agree that we should not raise taxes on middle-class families or small businesses -- not when so many folks are just trying to get by.”

PeopleShouldTryingYearsBelieveJobsClassMillionsEconomyMiddleTaxesRaisesAgreeBillsClintonRateFolksIncomeRadicalPlentyBudgetsMiddle ClassBootsSmall BusinessMillionaireIncome TaxBack WhenSurplusNew JobJust BelieveMiddle Class Family
Author:Barack Obama
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“Economists may not know much. But we know one thing very well: how to produce surpluses and shortages. Do you want a surplus? Have the government legislate a minimum price that is above the price that would otherwise prevail. That is what we have done at one time or another to produce surpluses of wheat, of sugar, of butter, of many other commodities. Do you want a shortage? Have the government legislate a maximum price that is below the price that would otherwise prevail.”

KnowsWantWellsMayDoneGovernmentOne ThingProduceOne TimeSugarMinimumCommodityEconomistMaximumWheatShortageSurplus
Book:Free to Choose: A Personal Statement
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“There is more food in the world than we could possibly use. There's a huge surplus of food per capita, but it's locked away and rotting in the storehouses of the Western world, whereas in the East, in many parts of Africa, India and South America, people are starving to death. Millions of people are dying of starvation in a time in which there is a huge surplus of food.”

PeopleWorldUseAmericaMillionsDyingHugeIndiaSouthWesternEastLockedStarvingStarvationWestern WorldSurplusRottingSouth America
Author:Benjamin Creme
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