I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is a “circle of life” like feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion this virtuous cycle of increasing demand and hiring. In this sense, an ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than a capitalist like me.

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— Nick Hanauer, venture capitalist and early Amazon.com investor, in “The Inequality Speech That TED Won’t Show You” (via iteeth)