Nishanth Bala

“GDP growth is, ultimately, an indicator of the welfare of capitalism. That we have all come to see it as a proxy for the welfare of humans represents an extraordinary ideological coup”
― Jason Hickel

“But money doesn’t work in the sense that labor or tangible capital expends
effort to produce commodities. Credit is debt, and debt extracts interest. Financial salesmen who promise investors, “Make your money work for you” actually mean that society should work for the creditors — and that means for the banks that create credit.

The effect is to turn the economic surplus into a flow of interest payments, diverting revenue from tangible capital investment. As the economy’s reproductive powers are dried up, the financialization process is kept going by easing credit terms and lending — not to produce more goods and services, but to bid up prices for the real estate, stocks and bonds being pledged as collateral for larger and larger loans.”
― Michael Hudson, The Bubble and Beyond

“The notion that one’s income reflects their productivity, or the value they contribute to society, is one of the most pernicious fallacies of neoclassical economics”
― Jason Hickel

“The annual budget is a much better reflection of a country's morality than its constitution. You put more money into repression, police, military... and so little to taking care of human troubles”
― Vijay Prashad