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When self-important people and powerful institutions are governed by illusion, history has a way of biting back.
William Greider
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William Greider
Age: 83 †
Born: 1936
Born: August 6
Died: 2019
Died: December 25
Author
Editor
Journalist
Writer
Cincinnati
Ohio
William Harold Greider
Way
Governed
People
Illusion
Institutions
Powerful
History
Back
Self
Important
Biting
More quotes by William Greider
Democracy is held captive, not just by money, but by ideas - the ideas that money buys.
William Greider
The scandalous question that hangs over modern government and excites perpetual outrage is about political money and what it buys. What exactly do these contributors get in return for the hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars they funnel to the politicians?
William Greider
If one benefits tangibly from the exploitation of others who are weak, is one morally implicated in their predicament? Or are basic rights of human existence confined to the civilized societies that are wealthy enough to afford them? Our values are defined by what we will tolerate when it is done to others.
William Greider
Folks in the bottom half of the economy are already squeezed hard. They will be bloodied and bankrupt if economic policy inadvertently induces a recession.
William Greider
Aside from sending someone to war or to prison, government s ability to make people involuntarily give over their money is its strongest exercise of authority over private citizens and their institutions.
William Greider
A newly elected representative quickly discovers that his job in government-aside from making new laws-is to act as a broker, middleman, special pleader and finagler.
William Greider
If US per capita income continues to grow at a rate of 1.5 percent a year, the country will have plenty of money to finance comfortable retirements and high-quality healthcare for all citizens, including those at the bottom of the wage ladder.
William Greider
Democracy begins in human conversation. A democratic conversation does not require elaborate rules of procedure or utopian notions of perfect consensus. What it does require is a spirit of mutual respect-people conversing critically with one another in an atmosphere of honesty and shared regard.
William Greider
Obviously, people with low or even moderate incomes could not afford such savings rates, and even diligent savings from their low wages would not be enough to pay for either retirement or healthcare.
William Greider
The economy is not governed with the bottom half in mind.
William Greider
Maybe the reason some folks lag behind in our free enterprise system is because they depend too much on the free part and not enough on their own enterprise.
William Greider
Fellow senators balked at punishing Senator Alfonse D'Amato of New York though he was caught in a series of transactions that earned him the label Senator Sleaze. D'Amato explained their reluctance as he defended his own behavior. There but for the grace of God go most of my colleagues, he said.
William Greider
Leaks and whispers are a daily routine of news-gathering in Washington.
William Greider
The ways in which people treat animals will be reflected in how people relate to one another.
William Greider
The burnt odor in Washington is from the disintegrating authority of the governing classes.
William Greider
The point is, the political reporters are the ones who no longer understand the ritual they are covering. They keep searching for political meanings in the tepid events when a convention is now essentially a human drama and only that.
William Greider
The threat to globalization is not the wasted American dollars but Washington's readiness to mix US commercial interests with its self-appointed role as global protector.
William Greider
The present struggle seems less about abolishing big government than about who gets to use it.
William Greider
The quest for homeland security is heading ... toward the quasi-militarization of everyday life ... If danger might lurk anywhere, maybe everything must be protected and policed.
William Greider
People know elections, like television commercials, are not real.
William Greider
