Business has to have a seat at the table. Infrastructure isn't going to be built properly if business doesn't have a seat at the table. A school is not going to happen if businesses don't work with schools about what kind of jobs they really need.
The problem is not that the U.S. economy won't be able to take care of its citizens - it is that taking away benefits, creating intergenerational warfare, and scapegoating will make for very difficult and bad politics. This is a tragedy that we can see coming. Early action would be relatively painless.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The U.S. economy can support its citizens, but poor political choices may lead to social strife and challenges.
In this quote, Jamie Dimon highlights the underlying issues facing the U.S. economy as it relates to social support and benefits for citizens. He warns that political decisions that strip away these benefits or create divides among different generations could lead to a tragic future. Dimon advocates for proactive measures to avoid this outcome, suggesting that early intervention is both necessary and could be done with minimal pain.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a public speech about healthcare reform, this quote can illustrate the importance of maintaining benefits for citizens.
More from Jamie Dimon
All quotes →If you're blindly loyal to me, then you're just acting like a crony of mine. If you say you admire me because of the principles for which I stand, I understand that, but then you also have the right to call me to the carpet when you think I'm falling short.
I'm a little bit of an eternal optimist. People always say to me, 'If you go do this and it fails, what are you going to do?' I don't care. I'm going to give it my best shot. That's what I'm going to do. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. And I'll try again.
You don't run a business hoping you don't have a recession.
It is vital for officials and regulators to have input from people within our businesses who understand the intricacies of how financial markets operate and the consequences of certain policy decisions.
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We used to play marbles for keeps. If you lost, you lost. It is the same way with politics, but not everybody knows this.
I'm concerned when certain movements or countries have been isolated from the international dialogue because then you have no way of influencing them.
Political campaigns are designedly made into emotional orgies which endeavor to distract attention from the real issues involved, and they actually paralyze what slight powers of cerebration man can normally muster.
We owe gratitude to France, justice to England, good will to all, and subservience to none ... it was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism, and it is by the same agency alone we can be kept from falling back.
For the Palestinians' efforts to delegitimize Israel will end in failure. Palestinian leaders will not achieve peace or prosperity if Hamas insists on a path of terror and rejection. And Palestinians will never realize their independence by denying the right of Israel to exist.