Top 88 Robert Reich Quotes

One tax dodge often used by multi-national companies is to squirrel their earnings abroad in foreign subsidiaries located in countries where taxes are lower.

So why don’t nurses do home visits to Americans with acute conditions? Hospitals aren’t paid for it.

It is hard to bite the hands that feed you, especially when you are competing for food.

We need a national infrastructure bank to rebuild our crumbling highways and water and sewer systems, thereby putting additional people back to work.

The generosity of the super-rich is sometimes proffered as evidence they’re contributing as much to the nation’s well-being as they did decades ago when they paid a much larger share of their earnings in taxes.

True patriotism isn’t cheap. It’s about taking on a fair share of the burden of keeping America going.

It’s not government’s business what people do in their private bedrooms.

Walmart is so huge that a wage boost at Walmart would ripple through the entire economy, putting more money in the pockets of low-wage workers. This would help boost the entire economy – including Walmart’s own sales.

Increasingly, corporate nationality is whatever a corporation decides it is.

When times are tough, public employees should have to make the same sacrifices as everyone else.

Yes, the rich will find ways to avoid paying more taxes, courtesy of clever accountants and tax attorneys. But this has always been the case, regardless of where the tax rate is set.

Technology is changing so fast that knowledge about specifics can quickly become obsolete. That’s why so much of what technicians learn is on the job.

The faith that anyone could move from rags to riches – with enough guts and gumption, hard work and nose to the grindstone – was once at the core of the American Dream.

America is one of few advanced nations that allow direct advertising of prescription drugs.

As we segregate by income into different communities, schools in lower-income areas have fewer resources than ever.

The liberal ideal is that everyone should have fair access and fair opportunity. This is not equality of result. It’s equality of opportunity. There’s a fundamental difference.

Instead of worrying about who’s American and who’s not, here’s a better idea: Create incentives for any global company to do what we’d like it to do in the United States.

A society – any society – is defined as a set of mutual benefits and duties embodied most visibly in public institutions: public schools, public libraries, public transportation, public hospitals, public parks, public museums, public recreation, public universities, and so on.

During three decades from 1947 to 1977, the nation implemented what might be called a basic bargain with American workers. Employers paid them enough to buy what they produced.

Obviously, personal responsibility is important. But there’s no evidence that people who are poor are less ambitious than anyone else. In fact, many work long hours at backbreaking jobs.

As public schools deteriorate, the upper-middle class and wealthy send their kids to private ones. As public pools and playgrounds decay, the better-off buy memberships in private tennis and swimming clubs. As public hospitals decline, the well-off pay premium rates for private care.

Can we please agree that in the real world, corporations exist for one purpose and one purpose only – to make as much money as possible, which means cutting costs as much as possible?

The job creators are members of America’s vast middle class and the poor, whose purchases cause businesses to expand and invest.

In reality, most of America’s poor work hard, often in two or more jobs.

I’m all in favor of supporting fancy museums and elite schools, but face it: These aren’t really charities as most people understand the term.

Median wages of production workers, who comprise 80 percent of the workforce, haven’t risen in 30 years, adjusted for inflation.

In 1968, the sanitation workers of Memphis tried to form a union. The city resisted. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. came to support them. That was where he lost his life.

As long as the big banks are allowed to remain big, their political leverage over Washington will remain big. And as long as their political leverage remains big, the taxpayer and economic tab for the next mess they create will be big.

Much of what’s called ‘public’ is increasingly a private good paid for by users – ever-higher tolls on public highways and public bridges, higher tuitions at so-called public universities, higher admission fees at public parks and public museums.

Bankruptcy laws allow companies to smoothly reorganize, but not college graduates burdened by student loans.

Universities have to tame their budgets, especially for student amenities that have nothing to do with education.

The Tea Party grew out of indignation over the Wall Street bailout – an indignation shared by the vast majority of Americans. But the Tea Party ended up directing its ire at government rather than at big business and Wall Street.

You might say those who can’t repay their student debts shouldn’t have borrowed in the first place. But they had no way of knowing just how bad the jobs market would become.

As digital equipment replaces the jobs of routine workers and lower-level professionals, technicians are needed to install, monitor, repair, test, and upgrade all the equipment.

A lot of attention has been going to social values – abortion, gay rights, other divisive issues – but economic values are equally important.

As income from work has become more concentrated in America, the super rich have invested in businesses, real estate, art, and other assets. The income from these assets is now concentrating even faster than income from work.

Not only do unemployment benefits help families who are hurting; they also put money into their pockets that they’ll then spend – and their spending will keep other Americans in jobs.

If we give up on politics, we’re done for. Powerlessness is a self-fulfilling prophesy.

It’s true that redistributing income to the needy is politically easier in a growing economy than in a stagnant one.

It is impossible to fight bullies merely by saying they’re going too far.

The monied interests are doing what they do best – making money. The rest of us need to do what we can do best – use our voices, our vigor, and our votes.

The ‘free market’ is the product of laws and rules continuously emanating from legislatures, executive departments, and courts.

Official boundaries are often hard to see. If you head north on Woodward Avenue, away from downtown Detroit, you wouldn’t know exactly when you left the city and crossed over into Oakland County – except for a small sign that tells you.

A Democratic president should propose a major permanent tax reduction on the middle class and working class. I suspect most of the public would find this attractive.

America’s real business leaders understand unless or until the middle class regains its footing and its faith, capitalism remains vulnerable.

Most financiers, corporate lawyers, lobbyists, and management consultants are competing with other financiers, lawyers, lobbyists, and management consultants in zero-sum games that take money out of one set of pockets and put it into another.

Over the long term, the only way we’re going to raise wages, grow the economy, and improve American competitiveness is by investing in our people – especially their educations.

Teachers, social workers, public lawyers who bring companies to justice, government accountants who try to make sure money is spent as it should be – all need at least four years of college.

Patagonia, a large apparel manufacturer based in Ventura, California, has organized itself as a ‘B-corporation.’ That’s a for-profit company whose articles of incorporation require it to take into account the interests of workers, the community, and the environment, as well as shareholders.

The Tea Party is but one manifestation of a widening perception that the game is rigged in favor of the rich and powerful.

Rather than subsidize ‘American’ exporters, it makes more sense to subsidize any global company – to the extent it’s adding to its exports from the United States.

We don’t have to sit by and watch our meritocracy be replaced by a permanent aristocracy, and our democracy be undermined by dynastic wealth.

The only way to make sure no bank is too big to fail is to make sure no bank is too big.

On the Republican playing field, Republicans always win.

Limits should be placed on how big big banks can become.

Some argue shareholder capitalism has proven more efficient. It has moved economic resources to where they’re most productive, and thereby enabled the economy to grow faster.

America spends a fortune on drugs: more per person than any other nation on earth, even though Americans are no healthier than the citizens of other advanced nations.

Evidence suggests jobs are crucial not only to economic well-being but also to self-esteem.

Conservatives believe the economy functions better if the rich have more money and everyone else has less. But they’re wrong. It’s just the opposite.

Our young people – their capacities to think, understand, investigate, and innovate – are America’s future.