Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Wealth inequality leads to private security for the rich while public services for the poor decline.
In plain terms
Rich people hire private security while poor areas lack police services.
What can you take from it?
Inequality drives the rich to privatize safety and abandon public systems.

Where it applies

  • urban planning
  • tax policy
  • social critique

Putting it to work

  • taxate public policing
  • reduce inequality
  • reform zoning

Questions to consider

  • Should security be a public or private good?
  • How does wealth affect civic duty?

Another view

It oversimplifies complex urban funding and crime dynamics.

More from John Kenneth Galbraith

  1. The contented and economically comfortable have a very discriminating view of government. Nobody is ever indignant about bailing out failed banks and failed sa…

    Permalink to quote #55
  2. Almost 60-odd years ago in Canada. I was studying agriculture, how to produce better chickens, better cattle, better horses - horses in those days - better fru…

    Permalink to quote #57
  3. There's a certain part of the contented majority who love anybody who is worth a billion dollars.

    Permalink to quote #54

Related quotes

  1. America decided we were going to stand by and let Americans die at the hands of terrorists a long time ago.

    Tommy FranksTommy Franks quote #2
  2. I'm anything but skittish about government, but I must say this administration is truly scary and, given the times we live in, frighteningly dangerous.

    John DeanJohn Dean quote #2
  3. Private courier companies are fine to handle the lucrative parts of the [postal] business. But they have little interest in servicing remote communities, so th…

    Linda McQuaigLinda McQuaig quote #2