Top 35 David Korten Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Capitalism has defeated communism. It is now well on its way to defeating democracy.”

— David Korten

2. “Money is a mechanism for control.”

— David Korten

3. “In a world of increasing inequality, the legitimacy of institutions that give precedence to the property rights of ‘the Haves’ over the human rights of ‘the Have Nots’ is inevitably called into serious question.”

— David Korten

4. “Money is not wealth. Money is a claim on wealth.”

— David Korten

5. “Our global economy is out of control and performing contrary to basic principles of market economics.”

— David Korten

6. “If there is to be a human future, we must bring ourselves into balanced relationship with one another and the Earth.”

— David Korten

7. “Capitalism and the market are presented as synonymous, but they are not. Capitalism is both the enemy of the market and democracy.”

— David Korten

8. “There is a huge shift taking place in the global awareness in the last 5 years with strong views about globalization and the power structures of major corporations.”

— David Korten

9. “Our defining gift as humans is our power to choose, including our power to choose our collective future. It is a gift that comes with a corresponding moral responsibility to use that power in ways that work to the benefit of all people and the whole of life.”

— David Korten

10. “In the US, most progressives start to see the differences between internationalism and economic globalization.”

— David Korten

11. “Capitalism is not about free competitive choices among people who are reasonably equal in their buying and selling of economic power, it is about concentrating capital, concentrating economic power in very few hands using that power to trash everyone who gets in their way.”

— David Korten

12. “Global competition is about winners and losers.”

— David Korten

13. “I am in favor of increased communication and cooperation between countries, but it is more important that each country becomes responsible for its own actions, its own communities, its own economies, before starting to integrate in large regional or global supranational organizations.”

— David Korten

14. “If you’re living in the community and you own your local businesses and you’re engaged in the local economy you should have a definite interest in the strength and health of your community, the caring relationships that bind people together.”

— David Korten

15. “The current system is organized around financial values over life values. We need to shift that locus of power down to the community level because the financial markets recognize only money and thereby only financial values.”

— David Korten

16. “An economic system can remain viable only so long as society has mechanisms to counter abuses of either state or market power and the erosion of the natural, social, and moral capital that such abuses commonly exacerbate.”

— David Korten

17. “So, there is enormous instability in the global economy with a shift of winners and losers.”

— David Korten

18. “Living capital, which has the special capacity to continuously regenerate itself, is ultimately the source of all real wealth. To destroy it for money, a simple number with no intrinsic value, is an act of collective insanity – which makes capitalism a mental, as well as physical pathology.”

— David Korten

19. “Moreover, statistics can be deceiving: the growth of jobs in the US in the 90s was due to many part-time jobs, with no benefits and generally low pay.”

— David Korten

20. “Corporate globalists and the corporate empires they serve may be at the cutting edge of technological innovation, but socially and environmentally they are relics of a bygone era of imperial colonial rule, elite privilege, and state-sanctioned plunder.”

— David Korten

21. “Not exclusively, but the bulk of our local economy should be covered by local currencies, which is more efficient than having global currencies which lose connection with reality in the markets, shops and communities of the people.”

— David Korten

22. “It will take some time before a politician will capture the imagination of the American people and have the vision and understanding to do what is necessary for a better future for the people of America and the world.”

— David Korten

23. “If you look at the US economy over the last 15-20 years wages have been stagnating or even declining.”

— David Korten

24. “I think one of the most important skills of a local organizer of a local economy is an ability to put on a terrific street party.”

— David Korten

25. “If you look internationally over the last 50 years there have been improvements in the third world, but in the last 20 years the reverse has happened, with debt crises and increased poverty.”

— David Korten

26. “Europeans say they are proud of their social fabric, of strong rights for workers and the weak in society.”

— David Korten

27. “But we can also take the radical view that the test of an economy has to do with the extent to which it is providing everybody with a decent means of living.”

— David Korten

28. “There are actually very few US politicians who have integrity and vision.”

— David Korten

29. “The professional study of economics has become ideological brainwashing. It is a defense of the excesses of the capitalist system.”

— David Korten

30. “Wall Street sees a social fabric or social contract as inefficiencies, which need to be removed.”

— David Korten

31. “As an economy measures performance in terms of the creation of money, people become a major source of inefficiency.”

— David Korten

32. “The first principle of the market economy is that it is comprised of many small buyers and sellers, which implies a substantial degree of equity. Another fundamental market principle is that costs are internalized in the producer’s price.”

— David Korten

33. “It is interesting to note that the 200 richest people have more assets than the 2 billion poorest.”

— David Korten

34. “As long as you have a system that is based on the rational that if you are making money you are thereby making a contribution to society, these financial rogue practices will continue.”

— David Korten

35. “More humane societies are usually smaller, like the Scandinavian countries and Holland, where it is much easier to reach consensus and cooperation.”

— David Korten

36. “We can have democracy and a prosperous, just, and sustainable human future. Or we can have corporate rule. We cannot have both.”

— David Korten

37. “There was a time in the United States when most of our financial institutions were local. Which essentially meant that local communities were able to create their own credit, or their own money, in response to their own needs. We still depended on banks, but it was a much more democratic process.”

— David Korten

38. “We should be moving toward local currencies not global or European currencies.”

— David Korten

39. “There is no visible sign that the current politicians in the US are willing to see the need for change.”

— David Korten