Robert Reich Quotes

“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.”

— Robert Reich

“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.”

— Robert Reich

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

— Robert Reich

“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.”

— Robert Reich

“A leader is someone who steps back from the entire system and tries to build a more collaborative, more innovative system that will work over the long term.”

— Robert Reich

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

— Robert Reich

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.

— Robert Reich

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.

— Robert Reich

“Our young people - their capacities to think, understand, investigate, and innovate - are America's future.”

— Robert Reich

Government subsidies to elite private universities take the form of tax deductions for people who make charitable contributions to them.

— Robert Reich

“Centrism is bogus.”

— Robert Reich

“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.”

— Robert Reich

“If we want corporations to act differently, we have to force them to do so through laws that are fully enforced and through penalties higher than the economic benefits of thwarting the laws.”

— Robert Reich

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

— Robert Reich

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

— Robert Reich

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

— Robert Reich

You can't create a political movement out of pabulum.

— Robert Reich

“I wish it were simply a nightmare, but I think that any reasonable person watching American politics would come to the conclusion that a second Bush administration would in fact incorporate a more radicalized version of what we've seen in the first administration.”

— Robert Reich

“Nations are becoming less relevant in a world where everyone and everything is interconnected. The connections that matter most are again becoming more personal.”

— Robert Reich

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

— Robert Reich

Drug company payments to doctors are a small part of a much larger strategy by Big Pharma to clean our pockets.

— Robert Reich

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

— Robert Reich

Public fear isn't something to be played with.

— Robert Reich

“Freedom is the one value conservatives place above all others, yet time and again, their ideal of freedom ignores the growing imbalance of power in our society that's eroding the freedoms of most people.”

— Robert Reich

I'm not one of those who thinks the only way to fix what's wrong with American education is to throw more money at it. We also need to do it much better.

— Robert Reich

“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.”

— Robert Reich

“The silent majority really is a liberal majority, even though the word liberal has taken a real beating over the last 20 years by radical conservatives.”

— Robert Reich

“We already have an annual wealth tax on homes, the major asset of the middle class. It's called the property tax. Why not a small annual tax on the value of stocks and bonds, the major assets of the wealthy?”

— Robert Reich

“We're the richest economy in the history of the world. For the majority of Americans not to get the benefits of this extraordinarily prosperous economy, there's something fundamentally wrong.”

— Robert Reich

“Social change occurs when the gap between the ideals that people hold and the reality that they see every day gets too large.”

— Robert Reich

“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.”

— Robert Reich

I am not an economic determinist. If I were, I would throw up my hands; I just would not bother. I think it's wrong to be an economic determinist. I think it's wrong to simply say, "Well, inevitably, if you're poor, you're going to get a lousy education; if you're lower-middle class, the cards are going to be stacked against you, and you'll probably never get anywhere."

— Robert Reich

“Most Americans are on a downward escalator. Median wage in the United States, adjusted for inflation, keeps on dropping.”

— Robert Reich

“The federal budget deficit isn't the nation's major economic problem and deficit reduction shouldn't be our major goal.
Our problem is lack of good jobs and sufficient growth, and our goal must be to revive both.”

— Robert Reich

“When top executives get huge pay hikes at the same time as middle-level and hourly workers lose their jobs and retirement savings, or have to accept negligible pay raises and cuts in health and pension benefits, company morale plummets. I hear it all the time from employees: This company, they say, is being run only for the benefit of the people at the top. So why should we put in extra effort, commit extra hours, take on extra responsibilities? We'll do the minimum, even cut corners. This is often the death knell of a company.”

— Robert Reich

“Cynicism is the last refuge of those who don't want to do the work of creating a better society.”

— Robert Reich

“Look, any cut in greenhouse gases is going to be expensive for American consumers, who are in no mood to bear additional costs.”

— Robert Reich

“Corporations are not people, despite what the Supreme Court says, and they don't need or deserve handouts.”

— Robert Reich

“Higher education isn't just a personal investment. It's a public good that pays off in a more competitive workforce and better-informed and engaged citizens. Every year, we spend nearly $100 billion on corporate welfare, and more than $500 billion on defense spending. Surely ensuring the next generation can compete in the global economy is at least as important as subsidies for big business and military adventures around the globe. In fact, I think we can and must go further - not just making public higher education tuition-free, but reinventing education in America as we know it.”

— Robert Reich

“I think the Obama Administration has done a lousy job marketing and selling and explaining this entire thing. And, as a result, all of these right-wing front organizations financed by the Koch brothers, are blanketing the airwaves with lies about Obamacare. And people are scared.”

— Robert Reich

“Those who analogize the federal budget to a family's budget must know nothing about either.”

— Robert Reich

“The only way America can reduce the long-term budget deficit, maintain vital services, protect Social Security and Medicare, invest more in education and infrastructure, and not raise taxes on the working middle class is by raising taxes on the super rich.”

— Robert Reich

“In the life of a nation, few ideas are more dangerous than good solutions to the wrong problems.”

— Robert Reich

If leadership is about anything, it's about leading. Not leading people back to where they already are, because they don't need that. They're already there.

— Robert Reich

“I want a shot for people like me to grow up and do something with themselves.”

— Robert Reich

“I grew up poor. My mother raised a family of four on between $9,000 and $15,000 a year.”

— Robert Reich

“Every organization, no matter who it is, just follow the money.”

— Robert Reich

I knew Hillary Clinton from undergraduate days and was enormously impressed with her. She was a terrific energy and enthusiasm, and a great organizer. And I knew that she was going to have a political future.

— Robert Reich

“To be a skilled politician, you have to be genuine. To really make it work, you have to love people. You have to love the contact, you have to love the energy, you've gotta love inspiring people and getting their adulation in return. You can't separate what's genuine from what is necessary.”

— Robert Reich

“I don't think that our problem, our jobs problem, is fundamentally a problem of trade. I think it has much more to do with the fact that we have not sufficiently educated our population. We have not got out of this great recession with adequate stimulus and adequate fiscal and monetary policies over all.”

— Robert Reich