Robert Reich Quotes

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

— Robert Reich

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.

— Robert Reich

“Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and the rest of the Ivy League are worthy institutions, to be sure, but they're not known for educating large numbers of poor young people.”

— Robert Reich

“You can't inspire people if you are going to be uninspiring.”

— Robert Reich

“Standing up to bullies is the hallmark of a civilized society.”

— Robert Reich

“The largest party in America, by the way, is neither the Democrats nor the Republicans. It's the party of non-voters.”

— Robert Reich

“Globalization and free trade do spur economic growth, and they lead to lower prices on many goods.”

— Robert Reich

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.

— Robert Reich

“We do not want to live in a theocracy. We should maintain that barrier and government has no business telling someone what they ought to believe or how they should conduct their private lives.”

— Robert Reich

“Money buys the most experienced teachers, less-crowded classrooms, high-quality teaching materials, and after-school programs.”

— Robert Reich

“Those at the top would do better with a smaller share of a booming economy that elicits a positive politics than they will do with an ever-larger share of an anemic economy that fuels the politics of anger.”

— Robert Reich

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

— Robert Reich

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

— Robert Reich

“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.”

— Robert Reich

“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.”

— Robert Reich

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

— Robert Reich

“Corporations aren't people. They have no brains, no consciences, no capacity for intent or guilt.”

— Robert Reich

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

— Robert Reich

“Media outlets that are exploiting Ebola because they want a sensational story and politicians using it to their own ends ought to be ashamed.”

— Robert Reich

“Those who take their money abroad in an effort to avoid paying American taxes should lose their American citizenship.”

— Robert Reich

What someone is paid has little or no relationship to what their work is worth to society.

— Robert Reich

“The curious thing is Americans don't mind individual mandates when they come in the form of payroll taxes to buy mandatory public insurance. In fact, that's the system we call Social Security and Medicare, and both are so popular politicians dare not touch them.”

— Robert Reich

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.

— Robert Reich

“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.”

— Robert Reich

“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.”

— Robert Reich

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.

— Robert Reich

“We never used to blink at taking a leadership role in the world. And we understood leadership often required something other than drones and bombs. We accepted global leadership not just for humanitarian reasons, but also because it was in our own best interest. We knew we couldn't isolate ourselves from trouble. There was no place to hide.”

— Robert Reich

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

— Robert Reich

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

— Robert Reich

Medical costs are soaring because our health-care system is totally screwed up. Doctors and hospitals have every incentive to spend on unnecessary tests, drugs, and procedures.

— Robert Reich

“Detroit is really a model for how wealthier and whiter Americans escape the costs of public goods they'd otherwise share with poorer and darker Americans.”

— Robert Reich

“No company can be expected to build a nuclear reactor, an oil well, a coal mine, or anything else that's one hundred percent safe under all circumstances. The costs would be prohibitive. It's unreasonable to expect corporations to totally guard against small chances of every potential accident.”

— Robert Reich

“I have found over the years that the most important way of getting people to relax is self-deprecating humor.”

— Robert Reich

“If you give up on democracy, you might as well give up on everything.”

— Robert Reich

“Cynicism is the largest obstacle to social change. Cynicism is dangerous because people throw up their hands and say, "Well it's not possible. Why should I even try?"”

— Robert Reich

“There is a deep desire to change the power structure.”

— Robert Reich

“Terrorism itself is not the greatest danger we face,”

— Robert Reich

“The rich would do better with a smaller share of a rapidly growing economy then they're doing now with a large share of an economy that is barely growing at all.”

— Robert Reich

In the early 1970s, Milton Friedman argued that corporations should not be socially responsible because they had no mandate to be; they existed to make money, not to be charitable institutions. But in the economy of the 21st century, corporations cannot be socially responsible, if social responsibility is understood to mean sacrificing profits for the sake of some perceived social good. That's because competition has become so much more intense.

— Robert Reich

“Education is not the only answer and it's certainly not the immediate solution. At best, it's a necessary, but not sufficient response to widening inequality.”

— Robert Reich

“The intellectual equipment needed for the job of the future is an ability to define problems, quickly assimilate relevant data, conceptualize and reorganize the information, make deductive and inductive leaps with it, ask hard questions about it, discuss findings with colleagues, work collaboratively to find solutions and then convince others.”

— Robert Reich

“If you want to be a change agent, you have to ready to fail.”

— Robert Reich

“Well-trained and dedicated employees are the only sustainable source of competitive strength.”

— Robert Reich

“The presidency is probably the loneliest office in America. Regardless of your friends, regardless of how good your marriage is, regardless of anything, you are alone there at the top.”

— Robert Reich

Anyone believing the TPP is good for Americans take note: The foreign subsidiaries of U.S.-based corporations could just as easily challenge any U.S. government regulation they claim unfairly diminishes their profits - say, a regulation protecting American consumers from unsafe products or unhealthy foods, investors from fraudulent securities or predatory lending, workers from unsafe working conditions, taxpayers from another bailout of Wall Street, or the environment from toxic emissions.

— Robert Reich

“We need to expand Social Security to prevent the looming retirement crisis, and we can do it simply by asking billionaires to pay their fair share.”

— Robert Reich

“Socialism for rich bankers and capitalism for everyone else.”

— Robert Reich

“In a world where routine production is footloose ... competitive advantage lies not in one-time breakthroughs but in continual improvements. Stable technologies get away.”

— Robert Reich

Most Americans stopped looking at what was happening through a variety of coping mechanisms - starting with women entering paid work and then everyone working longer hours and using their homes for raising equity and generating more money through debt. The typical household basically staved off the day of reckoning.

— Robert Reich

“Any bank that is too big to fail is too big. Period.”

— Robert Reich