David Korten Quotes

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

One of the biggest challenges facing the globe is the gap that exists in the wealth and standards of living enjoyed by the world's nations.

Where do people earn the Per Capita Income? More than one poor starving soul would like to know. In our countries, numbers live better than people. How many people prosper in times of prosperity? How many people find their lives developed by development?

Economic growth doesn't mean anything if it leaves people out.

In middle-income countries, inequality becomes a problem because you can see there is a layer of people who are doing well, while the poor are still stuck there.

Today the salaries of stars are astronomical in comparison with the 20's, but the high cost of today's living and taxes takes a huge bite out of these salaries.

Millions of people are falling out of the middle class into the ranks of the poor.

The increase in inequality in income is a longtime trend, but the pressure on middle- and low-income workers is going up rapidly. Especially if they live in an area where there are high housing and gas prices, like California.

It is unacceptable that someone can work full time - and work hard - and not be able to lift themselves out of poverty.

Inflation is taking up the poverty line, and poverty is not just economic but defined by way of health and education.

The reason we have poverty is that we have no imagination. There are a great many people accumulating what they think is vast wealth, but it's only money... they don't know how to enjoy it, because they have no imagination.

The cost of living is going up and the chance of living is going down.

Reducing poverty is in our own interest.

The sad fact is that in communities such as mine, the minimum wage is the maximum wage.

This country is very good at creating wealth, but not very good at distributing it.

Inequality of income is bad for everyone, not just the poor and the middle class.

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

What we're seeing is that even in high poverty neighborhoods, the average cost of renting is quickly approaching the total income of welfare recipients and low wage workers.

America's vast population of working poor can only get so poor before even Walmart is out of reach.

New York City has become a place where it's not easy for the working class to even live.

As Washington prospers, workers suffer.

Coronavirus has exposed for all what many of us already knew - some of our most important workers have barely enough to live on, and millions are condemned to financial insecurity, inequality and food poverty.

Rent and the cost of essentials like food and child care are rising so fast that wages are not keeping up.

It is absolute poverty that you could end, but I think relative poverty is a whole other issue.

I think poverty is the biggest challenge for Los Angeles and for many of our cities that have come back from the recession.