Wages Quotes
More Wages Quotes
The things you hear now about European unemployment -- that there are structural problems, that real wages have failed to adjust, that there are inflationary fears -- are the same things that were said during the early 1930. It is well established that government spending began to pull Germany out of its slump in 1935. There is no known reason why spending for peace can't do as well at getting the economy going as spending for war.
lawrence summers— David Warsh (April 27, 1986) "It Did Happen Here, Too", Boston Globe, p. A1.
To the ordinary working man, the sort you would meet in any pub on Saturday night, Socialism does not mean much more than better wages and shorter hours and nobody bossing you about.
— 1937 The Road to Wigan Pier, ch.11.
In every case, agricultural as well as manufacturing profits are lowered by a rise in the price of raw produce, if it be accompanied by a rise of wages. ...The natural tendency of profits is to fall; for in the progress of society and wealth, the additional quantity of food required is obtained by the sacrifice of more and more labour.
David Ricardo— Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Chapter 6: On Profits (1817).
Like all other contracts, wages should be left to the fair and free competition of themarket, and should never be controlled by the interference of the legislature.
David Ricardo— 1817 Principles of Political Economy andTaxation.
The common wages of labour depends every where upon the contract usually made between those two parties whose interests are by no means the same?Masters are always and every where in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labour above their actual rate.
Adam Smith— 1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of theWealth of Nations, bk.1, ch.8.
The rate of profit does not, like rent and wages, rise with the prosperity, and fall with the declension, of the society.On the contrary, it is naturally low in rich, and high in poor countries, and it is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to ruin.
Adam Smith— 1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of theWealth of Nations, bk.1, ch.11, conclusion.
The legend of Felix is ended, the toiling of Felix is done;The Master has paid him his wages, the goal of his journey is won;He rests, but he never is idle; a thousand years pass like a day,In the glad surprise of Paradise where work is sweeter than play.
henry van dyke— The Toiling of Felix, Pt. III, st. 1 (1898).
Don't look back, over your shoulder! Keep your eye on freedom shore! Because you know the brave man with you, also pays for the wages of war.
jackson c. frank— Don't Look Back
This is a challenge to the entire trade union movement in Ireland - a declaration of war on the wages and working conditions of all workers.
joe higgins— On the outsourcing of jobs by Irish Ferries in November 2005. Irish Independent
These, in the day when heaven was falling,The hour when earth’s foundations fled,Followed their mercenary callingAnd took their wages and are dead.Their shoulders held the sky suspended;They stood, and earth’s foundations stay;What God abandoned, these defended,And saved the sum of things for pay.
a. e. housman— No. 37 ("Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries").
If a country can only be rich by running a successful race for low wages, I should be disposed to say at once, perish such riches!
thomas malthus— Book I, Chapter III, Of the Rent of Land, Section IX, p. 214
The working classes may be injuriously degraded and oppressed in three ways:1st — When they are neglected in infancy2nd — When they are overworked by their employer, and are thus rendered incompetent from ignorance to make a good use of high wages when they can procure them.3rd — When they are paid low wages for their labour
Robert Owen— Two Memorials on Behalf of the Working Classes (1818)
The lowest stage of humanity is experienced when the individual must labour for a small pittance of wages from others.
Robert Owen— Paper Dedicated to the Governments of Great Britain, Austria, Russia, France, Prussia and the United States of America (1841)
I have read all that has been written by the gravest authorities on political economy on the subject of rent, wages, taxes, tithes.
robert peel— Speech in the House of Commons (15 March 1839).
The value which the workmen add to the materials, therefore, resolves itself in this case into two parts, of which the one pays their wages, the other the profits of the employer upon the whole stock of materials and wages which he advanced.
Adam Smith— Chapter VI, p. 58
A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him. They must even upon most occasions be somewhat more, otherwise it would be impossible for him to bring up a family, and the race of such workmen could not last beyond the first generation.
Adam Smith— Chapter VIII, p. 81
They didn't want votes, either. A vote wasn't going to raise wages or make bread cheaper. What did it matter to them what Government was in power.
flora thompson— Chapter Two - A House is built
Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. If we retrench the wages of the schoolmaster, we must raise those of the recruiting sergeant.
edward everett— As quoted in The Common School Journal and Educational Reformer (1852), edited by William B. Fowle, p. 28.
The wages Haiti requires by law belong in the department of science fiction: actual wages on coffee plantations vary from $.07 to $.15 a day
Eduardo Galeano— Galeano (1973) Vagamundo , p. 112
We will not adopt the fantastic hypocrisy of modern conservatism which preaches the values of families and communities, while conducting a direct assault on them through reduced wages and conditions and job security.
paul keating— Election campaign launch, February 14, 1996.
Most poor people earn more than minimum wage when they are working; their problem is not low wages. The problem comes when they are not working.
joseph e. stiglitz— Economics (1993)
We are Socialists, enemies, mortal enemies of the present capitalist economic system with its exploitation of the economically weak, with its injustice in wages, with its immoral evaluation of individuals according to wealth and money instead of responsibility and achievement, and we are determined under all circumstances to abolish this system:;! And with my inclination to practical action it seems obvious to me that we have to put a better, more just, more moral system in its place, one which, as it were, has arms and legs and better arms and legs than the present one:;!
gregor strasser— "Thoughts about the Tasks of the Future" - by Gregor Strasser - 1926 June 15
Economists, firstly, regard only one part of man's nature, and treat him simply as a money-making animal; secondly, they disregard the influence of custom, and only take account of competition. Certain laws are laid down under these assumptions; as, for instance, that the rate of wages always tends to an equality, the permanent difference obtaining in various employments being only sufficient to balance the favourable or unfavourable circumstances attending each of them a law which is only true after a certain stage of civilisation and in so far as the acquisition of wealth is the sole object of men.
Arnold Toynbee— p. 28-29 (Lectures on The Industrial Revolution in England (1884))
I know what wages beauty gives, How hard a life her servant lives, Yet praise the winters gone: There is not a fool can call me friend, And I may dine at journey’s end With Landor and with Donne.
William Butler Yeats— To A Young Beauty, st. 3
Our praises are our wages.
william shakespeare— William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale (c. 1610-11), Act I, scene 2, line 94.
The [pay] policy is principally designed to hold down wages rather than to check inflation. Inflation is being used as an excuse to destroy free trade union bargaining.
— Tony Benn Speech in the House of Commons (Hansard, 7 November 1973, Col. 1015)
Of all the passions, jealousy is that which exacts the hardest service and pays the bitterest wages. Its service is to watch the success of our enemies; its wages to be sure of it.
Charles Caleb Colton— Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon (1825).
The wages of sin is death.
— Romans, VI. 23.
