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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

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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
Spirit
Notion
Procedures
Another
Rules
Consensus
Doe
Democratic
Shared
Conversing
Human
Regard
Require
Procedure
Humans
Conversation
Mutual
Critically
People
Respect
Atmosphere
Elaborate
Democracy
Begins
Utopian
Perfect
Honesty
Notions

More quotes by William Greider

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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
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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.
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A profound political question is suddenly on the table: Must the country continue to give precedence to private financial gain and market determinism over human lives and broad public values?
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In its present terms, the global system values property over human life.
William Greider
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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
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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
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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
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The ways in which people treat animals will be reflected in how people relate to one another.
William Greider
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Democracy is held captive, not just by money, but by ideas - the ideas that money buys.
William Greider
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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
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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
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Children born today have a fifty-fifty chance of living to 100.
William Greider
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Creating a positive future begins in human conversation. The simplest and most powerful investment any member of a community or an organisation can make is to begin with other people as though the answers mattered.
William Greider
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If everyone has to be a watchdog in order to make government work, then the foxes will also volunteer to serve.
William Greider
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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
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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
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The rich nations of the world are acting like ancient usurers, lending money to the desperate poor on terms that cannot possibly be met and, thus, steadily acquiring more and more control over the lives and assets of the poor.
William Greider
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In 1900 Americans on average lived for only 49 years and most working people died still on the job.
William Greider
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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
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The present struggle seems less about abolishing big government than about who gets to use it.
William Greider