It is by all odds the loftiest of cities. It even managed to reach the highest point in the sky at the lowest moment of the depression.
E. B. WhiteRead
The trouble with the profit system has always been that it was highly unprofitable to most people.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The profit system primarily benefits a small number of individuals while disadvantaging the majority.
E. B. White's quote highlights a fundamental issue with the profit system, suggesting that while it generates wealth, it tends to disproportionately favor those at the top, leaving many people experiencing unprofitability. This reflects the systemic inequalities and challenges that arise within economic structures where profits are prioritized over equitable distribution of resources and opportunities.
Themes
ProfitSystemEconomicsInequalityOpportunity
In practice
Example use cases
Discussing economic policies during a community meeting.
More from E. B. White
All quotes βIt isn't silence you can cut with a knife any more, it's interchange of ideas. Intelligent discussion of practically everything is what is breaking up modern marriage.
E. B. WhiteRead
The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. Because I have the greatest respect for the reader, and if he's going to the trouble of reading what I've written -- I'm a slow reader myself and I guess most people are -- why, the least I can do is make it as easy as possible for him to find out what I'm trying to say, trying to get at. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear.
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A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handy man with a sense of humus.
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A despot doesn't fear eloquent writers preaching freedom- he fears a drunken poet who may crack a joke that will take hold.
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All writing is communication; creative writing is communication through revelation-it is the Self-escaping into the open.
E. B. WhiteRead
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We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
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