Law has become a business. Health care has become a business. Unfortunately, politics has also become a business. That really undermines society.
Interpretation
The quote criticizes the commercialization of critical societal systems, suggesting this undermines the fabric of society.
George Soros highlights a concerning trend where essential sectors such as law, health care, and politics have increasingly prioritized profit motives over their fundamental societal roles. He argues that this shift toward viewing these vital services as businesses, rather than moral or ethical responsibilities, poses a threat to societal well-being and integrity.
In practice
During a discussion on the ethics of healthcare reform, this quote can highlight the need for ethical practices.
The securitisation of mortgages added a new dimension of systemic risk. Financial engineers claimed they were reducing risks through geographic diversification: in fact they were increasing them by creating an agency problem. The agents were more interested in maximising fee income than in protecting the interests of bondholders. That is the verity that was ignored by regulators and market participants alike.
The collapse of the global marketplace would be a traumatic event with unimaginable consequences. Yet I find it easier to imagine than the continuation of the present regime.
Regulating and taxing marijuana would simultaneously save taxpayers billions of dollars in enforcement and incarceration costs, while providing many billions of dollars in revenue annually.
We are the most powerful nation on earth. No external power, no terrorist organization can defeat us. But we can defeat ourselves by getting caught in a quagmire.
My foundations support people in the country who care about an open society. It's their work that I'm supporting. So it's not me doing it. But I can empower them. I can support them, and I can help them.
The criminalization of marijuana did not prevent marijuana from becoming the most widely used illegal substance in the United States and many other countries. But it did result in extensive costs and negative consequences.
God uses lust to impel men to marry, ambition to office, avarice to earning, and fear to faith. God led me like an old blind goat.
In the nineteenth century the problem was that God is dead. In the twentieth century the problem is that man is dead.
In Sri Lanka a well-told lie is worth a thousand facts.
Those issues are biblical issues: to care for the sick, to feed the hungry, to stand up for the oppressed. I contend that if the evangelical community became more biblical, everything would change.
God has, in fact, written two books, not just one. Of course, we are all familiar with the first book he wrote, namely Scripture. But he has written a second book called creation.
You can take away a man's gods, but only to give him others in return.
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