Steve Hilton > Quotes

“But the per capita increase in California’s general-fund spending is also huge over the past decade, because California’s population hasn’t increased very much since 2013.6 Back in 2013 it was 38.3 million, and in 2023 it was only up to 38.9 million, an increase of only 0.6 percent. Over the past three years, California’s population has actually dropped by nearly 600,000 residents since reaching a high of 39.5 million in 2020. Taking population into account, California’s spending in 2023 dollars has gone from $3,291 per person in 2013 to $5,800 per person in 2023, an increase of 76 percent. And it’s going up, just as the population continues to go down: the 2024–25 budget came in at nearly $300 billion. This dramatic growth in per-person spending corresponds directly to more government control of the economy in the form of more programs and more employees. They’ve doubled the budget, but is everything twice as good?”
― Steve Hilton, Califailure: Reversing the Ruin of America's Worst-Run State – California's Decline Under Gavin Newsom and the Path to Reform

“As Jessica Lahey writes in her book The Gift of Failure, “The quickest way to kill off your child’s interest in a game, topic, or experiment is to impose your will on her learning.”9”
― Steve Hilton, More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First

“According to Green Cross Switzerland, 9 trillion gallons of water are used annually in textile production around the world. Most of it is dumped untreated.3”
― Steve Hilton, More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First

“A recent report in the New York Times highlighted the intense pressure on Amazon’s white-collar employees, those working on software, product development, and marketing. Employees faced “annual cullings,” often based on anonymous feedback from colleagues, who were all competing against each other; they openly wept in the office under the pressure; facing a boss described as an “insatiable taskmaster,” some employees worked for days without sleeping. Perhaps most troubling were the reports of employees in deep personal distress, facing family crises or even cancer diagnoses, who were given little to no flexibility and faced serious repercussions for their corresponding shortcomings.”
― Steve Hilton, More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First

“Sir John Cowperthwaite was the financial secretary of Hong Kong in the 1960s and the man widely credited with creating the conditions for its phenomenal economic success. When asked what advice he would give to a poor country trying to get richer, he said, “They should abolish the Office of National Statistics.” Cowperthwaite believed that the collection of economic data simply encouraged governments and bureaucrats to needlessly and destructively interfere in the economy, so he refused.”
― Steve Hilton, More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First

“The thing I can’t wrap my head around with artificial intelligence is its effect of doing away with the value you bring to the table in terms of labor. The ability to contribute is diminishing. There are fewer and fewer jobs where people can go home satisfied in the evening and say I did something amazing today.”
― Steve Hilton, More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First

“When poor people are constantly worrying about money, they neglect other areas of their lives. Scarcity of money affects scarcity of time, which in turn affects scarcity of mental bandwidth. All of these things feed on themselves, leading to worse and worse decision making. And although most of us might take a break when life feels overwhelming, the poor cannot. “Poor people can’t say, ‘I’ll take a vacation from being poor,’” Mullainathan explains.”
― Steve Hilton, More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First

“When police officers put targets before people, rules before relationships, and revenue before community, they are not acting in the best interests of the people—whether they be black, Hispanic, Asian, or white.”
― Steve Hilton, More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First

“Humane food appears to be more expensive because all its costs are included in the price. With factory food, we pay its costs in other ways.”
― Steve Hilton, More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First

“In 1931 German psychologist Kurt Lewin proposed what would come to be known as Lewin’s equation: B = f (P, E)—that is, human behavior is a function of a person and his or her environment. This”
― Steve Hilton, More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First

“We can agree that globalism isn’t democratic—without becoming isolationists. We can agree that a nation is not a nation unless it can enforce its borders—without being racist. We can agree that cultural norms such as two-parent families and a work ethic play a role in lifting people out of poverty—without being bigoted.”
― Steve Hilton, Positive Populism: Revolutionary Ideas to Rebuild Economic Security, Family, and Community in America