Joseph Stiglitz Quotes

There is greater income inequality in the United States than in any other industrialized country. Yes, the debt is a problem that must be dealt with. To me, however, the disappearing middle class is even worse - bad for our economy and really bad for our democracy.

Income inequity has to be addressed.

Income inequality is troubling because, among other things, it means that many people in our society don't have the opportunities to advance themselves.

The economy is not governed with the bottom half in mind.

I don't mind the rich getting richer, but the poor shouldn't be getting poorer, and there should be more people moving into the middle class.

The biggest single challenge to America and our future is income inequality. We've got to fix it.

The middle class has just fallen further and further behind the rich.

There never can be equality of rewards or possessions so long as the human plan contains varied talents and differing degrees of industry and thrift, but ours ought to be a country free from the great blotches of distressed poverty.

Unless you’re at the very top, you need a more equitable economy.

There’s been an economic war going on in this country and the middle class and the poor have been losing..

I think in the last thirty years, the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer. It is not something that you can see with rose-colored glasses.

What good is a high GDP if some, or even many, Americans are left behind?

While economic development [in Egypt] made a few people rich, it left many more worse off. As people felt less and less free, they also felt less and less provided for.

It's morally wrong, and economically self-defeating, that so much wealth flows upwards towards the richest of Americans, while millions work full time but still can't provide for their families.

No person can maximize the American Dream on the minimum wage.

If no man could become rich in Peru, no man could become poor.

Economic issues are a subset of social justice. Social justice is unimaginable without economic justice. Isn't that obvious?

It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent in studying them.

People who work full-time in America should not have to live in poverty - simple as that. Too many jobs don't pay enough to get by, let alone get ahead. Too many people are finding the rungs on the ladder of opportunity further and further apart.

And the 90% they are not is what I do for a living.

Never forget that there are rich people in poor countries and poor people in rich countries.

The poor will never cease out of the land.

A strong economy is perfectly consistent with concern for equity and economic justice.

Ninety percent of the racial debate is really about economics.

Until economic freedom is attained for everybody, there can be no real freedom for anybody.