As we segregate by income into different communities, schools in lower-income areas have fewer resources than ever.
Robert ReichRead
In America, people with lots of money can easily avoid the consequences of bad bets and big losses by cashing out at the first sign of trouble.
Interpretation
Wealth can shield individuals from the repercussions of poor financial decisions.
This quote by Robert Reich highlights the disparity in the financial landscape where affluent individuals have the means to escape the negative outcomes of their risky ventures. It underscores a critique of economic inequality, suggesting that those with significant resources can mitigate losses and evade accountability, while others cannot, raising questions about fairness and responsibility in economic practices.
In practice
In a speech discussing economic policies, one might quote this to highlight the unfair advantages of the wealthy.
As we segregate by income into different communities, schools in lower-income areas have fewer resources than ever.
What are called 'public schools' in many of America's wealthy communities aren't really 'public' at all. In effect, they're private schools, whose tuition is hidden away in the purchase price of upscale homes there, and in the corresponding property taxes.
What someone is paid has little or no relationship to what their work is worth to society.
Tax laws favor capital over labor, giving capital gains a lower rate than ordinary income. The rich get humongous mortgage interest deductions while renters get no deduction at all.
The dirty little secret is that both houses of Congress are irrelevant. ... America's domestic policy is now being run by Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve, and America's foreign policy is now being run by the International Monetary Fund [IMF]. ...when the president decides to go to war, he no longer needs a declaration of war from Congress.
You can't inspire people if you are going to be uninspiring.
People.. were poor not because they were stupid or lazy. They worked all day long, doing complex physical tasks. They were poor because the financial institution in the country did not help them widen their economic base.
Measures which serve to abridge the free competition of foreign Articles, have a tendency to occasion an enhancement of prices.
We must first note that economic factors are taken into account in a world in which ignorance, prejudice, and mental confusion, encouraged rather than dispelled by the political organization, exert a strong influence on policy making.
Lenders, including major credit companies as well as payday lenders, have taken over the traditional role of the street-corner loan shark, charging the poor insanely high rates of interest.
It is particularly odd that economists who profess to be champions of a free-market economy, should go to such twists and turns to avoid facing the plain fact: that gold, that scarce and valuable market-produced metal, has always been, and will continue to be, by far the best money for human society.
The raw fact is that every successful example of economic development this past century ... has taken place via globalization.
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