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 put labour and wages first and human ordomestic life second is to invert the order of God and of nature.
henry edward manning— 1889 On the London dock strike.
If capital isgrowing rapidly, wages may rise; the profit of capital rises incomparably more rapidly. The material position of the worker has improved, but at the cost of his social position. The social gulf that divides him from the capitalist has widened.
— 1849 'Wage Labour and Capital', collected in Robert C Tucker (ed) The Marx-Engels Reader (2nd edn,1972), p.211.
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.
Rising prices or wages do not cause inflation; they only report it. They represent an essential form of economic speech, sincemoney isjust another form of information.
Walter Bigelow Wriston— 1986 Risk and Other Four-LetterWords.
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
A thought crossed his mind: How do you make poor people feel wealthy when wages are stagnant? You give them cheap loans.
michael lewis— Chapter One, A Secret Origin Story, p. 14
Superstition, idolatry, and hypocrisy have ample wages, but truth goes a-begging.
Martin Luther— 53.
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)
If a rise in wages does not raise prices, a fall will not reduce them.
joan robinson— Chapter X, Real And Money Wages, p. 89
I realized it might be possible to do such a thing, run for money, trot for wages on piece work at a bob a puff rising bit by bit to a guinea a gasp and retiring through old age at thirty-two because of lace-curtain lungs, a football heart, and legs like varicose beanstalks.
Alan Sillitoe— "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner", from New and Collected Stories (1958; repr. London: Robson, 2003), p. 24.
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
We all, or nearly all, consent If wages rise by ten per cent It puts a choice before the nation Of unemployment or inflation.
kenneth boulding— Boulding (1951) in: The impact of the Union: eight economic theorists evaluate the labor union movement. John Maurice Clark & David McCord Wright eds.
"A fair day's wages for a fair day's work": it is as just a demand as governed men ever made of governing. It is the everlasting right of man.
thomas carlyle— Bk. I, ch. 3.
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
A serf-supporting and self-respecting democracy can plead no justification for the existence of child labor, no economic reason for chiseling workers' wages or stretching workers' hours.
franklin delano roosevelt— Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Message to Congress on Establishing Minimum Wages and Maximum Hours.," May 24, 1937. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project.
We wish to control big business so as to secure among other things good wages for the wage-workers and reasonable prices for the consumers. Wherever in any business the prosperity of the businessman is obtained by lowering the wages of his workmen and charging an excessive price to the consumers we wish to interfere and stop such practices. We will not submit to that kind of prosperity any more than we will submit to prosperity obtained by swindling investors or getting unfair advantages over business rivals.
theodore roosevelt— Speech at Progressive Party Convention, Chicago (17 June 1912).
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
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!
— Book I, Chapter III, Of the Rent of Land, Section IX, p. 214
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)
