Why, if all the rich men in the world divided up their money amongst themselves, there wouldn’t be enough to go round!
Christina Stead (1902-1983) Australian writer
House of All Nations, sc. 12 “The Revolution” [Jules] (1938)
(Source)
Pooh-poohing the idea that confiscating wealth from the rich would provide enough money to the poor. The line is also included in the "Credo" at the beginning of the novel, attributed to the character, Jules Bertillon.
Quotations about:
redistribution
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Any reasonable system of taxation should be based on the slogan of “Soak the Rich.”
Heywood Broun (1888-1939) American journalist, author
(Attributed)
The urge to distribute wealth equally, and still more the belief that it can be brought about by political action, is the most dangerous of all popular emotions. It is the legitimation of envy, of all the deadly sins the one which a stable society based on consensus should fear the most. The monster state is a source of many evils; but it is, above all, an engine of envy.
Paul Johnson (b. 1928) English journalist, historian, speechwriter, author
The Recovery of Freedom (1980)
This planet has — or rather had — a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much all of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English writer
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Introduction (1979)
(Source)
People here expect a revolution. There will be no revolution, none that deserves to be called so. There may be a scramble for money. But as the people we see want the things we now have and not better things, it is very certain that they will, under whatever change of forms, keep the old system. When I see changed men, I shall look for a changed world.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1848-04)
Written in London.
Money is like muck, not good except it be spread.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Seditions and Troubles,” Essays, No. 15 (1625)
(Source)
