Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown Jr. (b. April 7, 1938) is an American attorney, politician and member of the Democratic Party who has served as the 39th Governor of California since 2011, having previously served as California's 34th Governor from 1975 to 1983. Both before and after his original two terms as Governor, Brown served in numerous state, local and party positions and he has three times run for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. (Click here for full Wikipedia article)
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Automation and technology would be a great boon if it were creative, if there were more leisure, more opportunity to engage in raising a family, providing guidance to the young, all the stuff we say we need. America will work if we're all in it together. It'll work when there's a shared sense of destiny. It can be done!
I like computers. I like the Internet. It's a tool that can be used. But don't be misled into thinking that these technologies are anything other than aspects of a degenerate economic system.
In some cases, managers and employees have secured pensions beyond their original base salary. It is wrong, the people doing it know it's wrong, and we have to put an end to it.
Inaction may be the biggest form of action.
It looks to me to be obvious that the whole world cannot eat an American diet.
It's a crazy society now. It's the richest society ever and yet people are overworked. There's more unemployment, more crime, more confusion, more broken marriages. This is a breakdown. Every culture breaks down. Every society breaks down, whether it's Rome, Spain, the British Empire. The people in charge probably didn't get it until they had their heads chopped off.
Jobs for every American is doomed to failure because of modern automation and production. We ought to recognize it and create an income-maintenance system so every single American has the dignity and the wherewithal for shelter, basic food, and medical care. I'm talking about welfare for all. Without it, you're going to have warfare for all.
Multinational corporations do control. They control the politicians. They control the media. They control the pattern of consumption, entertainment, thinking. They're destroying the planet and laying the foundation for violent outbursts and racial division.
Pension reform can be hard to talk about. In the long run, reform now means fewer demands for layoffs and less draconian measures in the future. It's in the best interest of all Californians to fix this system now.
Prisons don't rehabilitate, they don't punish, they don't protect, so what the hell do they do?
Several unions have agreed to larger employee contributions for their members. Taxpayers are living with cuts and making sacrifices to deal with the reality of California's budget crisis, state workers are going to have to do the same.
The conventional viewpoint says we need a jobs program and we need to cut welfare. Just the opposite! We need more welfare and fewer jobs.
The government is becoming the family of last resort.
The reason that everybody likes planning is that nobody has to do anything.
Too often I find that the volume of paper expands to fill the available briefcases.
We have to be realistic about what the state can afford, and put an end to abuses of the system that cost millions.
We have to deal with where we are. We have to create cooperatives, we have to create intentional communities, we have to work for local cooperation where we are.
We have to restore power to the family, to the neighborhood, and the community with a non-market principle, a principle of equality, of charity, of let's-take-care-of-one-another. That's the creative challenge.
When the farmer can sell directly to the consumer, it is a more active process. There's more contact. The consumer can know, who am I buying this from? What's their name? Do they have a face? Is the food they are selling coming out of Mexico with pesticides?
Where there is a sufficient social movement of self-reliant communities, there can be political change. There must be political change.
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(April 7 is also the birthday of Williams Wordsworth.)
Categories: Jerry Brown, Quotes of the day
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