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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“The only way back toward a democracy and economy that work for the majority is for most of us to get politically active once again, becoming organized and mobilized.”

“Sugary drinks are blamed for increasing the rates of chronic disease and obesity in America. Yet efforts to reduce their consumption through taxes or other measures have gone nowhere. The beverage industry has spent millions defeating them.”

“Public fear isn't something to be played with.”

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

“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.”

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

“Even if there's no way to stop U.S. corporations from shedding their U.S. identities and becoming foreign corporations, there's no reason they should retain the privileges of U.S. citizenship.”

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

“Too many young people graduate laden with debts that take years, if not decades, to pay off.”

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

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

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