Larry Elder Quotations

Once brave politicians and others explain the war on drugs' true cost, the American people will scream for a cease-fire. Bring the troops home, people will urge. Treat drugs as a health problem, not as a matter for the criminal justice system.

The war on drugs is wrong, both tactically and morally. It assumes that people are too stupid, too reckless, and too irresponsible to decide whether and under what conditions to consume drugs. The war on drugs is morally bankrupt.

A goal without a plan is just a wish.

A woman who demands further gun control legislation is like a chicken who roots for Colonel Sanders.

Outsourcing and globalization of manufacturing allows companies to reduce costs, benefits consumers with lower cost goods and services, causes economic expansion that reduces unemployment, and increases productivity and job creation.

This battle for 'common-sense' gun control laws pits emotion and passion against logic and reason. All too often in such a contest, logic loses. So, expect more meaningless, if not harmful, 'gun control' legislation. Good news - if you're a crook.

Welfare distorts behavior, makes one less personally responsible and reduces the role of private charity. This principle applies to corporate welfare.

People value and spend their money more wisely when they acquire it by their own efforts - also known as work.

Doing what you want to do is easy. Doing what you have to do is hard.

Studies show that children of divorced parents can have outcomes as positive as those coming from intact homes, provided the father remains financially supportive and active in his children's lives.

To bring a child into the world that you cannot feed, clothe, house, and educate is the moral equivalent, in my opinion, of a drive-by shooting.

America traditionally represents the greatest possibility of someone's going from nothing to something. Why? In theory, if not practice, the government stays out of the way and lets individuals take risks and reap rewards or accept the consequences of failure. We call this capitalism - or, at least, we used to.

Raised by an irresponsible mother during the Great Depression in the Jim Crow south, my father was on his own from the age of 13.

Raising a child is an on-the-job kind of thing. There aren't a whole lot of manuals for that.

My dad was a Marine. He was one of the Montford Point Marines. Those are the equivalent of the Tuskegee Airmen for Marines. He's a tough, tough guy.

Lower taxes, less government spending on domestic programs and fewer regulations mean a better economy for everybody.

Individuals can spend their money more wisely, efficiently and more humanely than can government.

Only in Washington does a decrease in the proposed increase equal a spending cut.

The formula for achieving middle-class success is simple: Finish high school; don't have a child before the age of 20; and get married before having the child.

If anybody had a reason to become a delinquent, to become a criminal, to be angry at the man, to be angry at the white man, to be angry at America, it's my dad, but he did not feel that way at all.

My mom and my dad were married 56 years, and the fact that I reconciled with my dad I think made their marriage a little bit better as well.

The No. 1 cause of preventable death for young black men is not auto accidents or accidental drowning, but homicide.

Most people work for the private sector, which cannot exist without profit.

Rent-control laws disproportionately benefit the non-poor because the elite pull strings, work the system and are better connected than the non-poor.

Nobody ever worked as hard as my father. My father averaged maybe four hours of sleep at night, and when you're a kid, you don't realize that.

The people who know Kerry best consider Kerry aloof, imperious and condescending. Even worse, Kerry can't seem to retain their names.

Mired in a batting slump, Bonds sat in the locker room and complained about his uncharacteristic struggle to get his offense going. I can't put my finger on the problem, said Barry aloud. I'm struggling. Can't buy a hit. Bonds then looked up and noticed a chronically poor-hitting teammate nearby. Bonds turned to him and said something like - you must feel like this all the time.

Polls find young blacks less likely to call racism America's No. 1 issue. A Time/CNN poll found 89 percent of black teens consider racism in their own lives to be "a small problem" or "not a problem at all." Twice as many black teens as white believe that "failure to take advantage of available opportunities" is a bigger problem for blacks than discrimination.

I don't believe this is going to cause any more violence in the inner city,

Under Ronald Reagan - who cut the top tax rate from 70 percent to 28 percent - black income, business development and business growth exploded.

Last year, American government provided 35 percent of worldwide relief aid. In private contributions, American individuals, estates, foundations and corporations gave over $240 billion to charitable causes in 2003, according to Giving USA Foundation. Privately, Americans give at least $34 billion overseas.

First and foremost I'm an entertainer; I've got to put eardrums next to the box. There's a reason people don't watch PBS. It's highly informative, but it's boring.

Consider the CEO who refuses to outsource, believing - as does Mr. Dobbs - this hurts America. His competitor, however, wants to increase profits. When he can, he lowers costs by "outsourcing," using the savings to put back into his business. The CEO who refused to outsource now must explain to his finicky customers why he intends to charge them more.

The Social Security "trust fund" doesn't consist of any real assets. The government "borrows" fund money for other federal spending, replacing it with IOUs.

Spain, a country of 41 million people, boasts a greater Gross Domestic Product (GDP) than the GDP of all of the 22 Arab countries combined! Despite the presence of oil in many Arab countries, the region remains under-developed.

You must remember to compare benefits versus costs. For the foreseeable future, the only affordable alternatives are coal, natural gas, oil or nuclear. Renewable sources - solar, wind, etc. - so favored by the left remain prohibitively expensive. A nation becomes weaker, not stronger, by artificially overspending on costly, inefficient alternatives to fossil fuels.

According to the Social Security Administration, in 1945, 41.9 workers supported each individual retiree, while today only 3.3 workers support each retiree. This system cannot continue.

According to the McKinsey Global Institute, for every $1 outsourced, the economic gain to the U.S. as a whole is $1.12 to $1.14.

Increasing minimum wages, as Kerry wants to do, makes it more difficult for an unskilled, uneducated worker to find a job.

If the question is, 'Are these movies typical of how mainstream Americans feel?' No.

In the last 1,000 years, the Arabs have translated as many books as Spain translates in just one year.

I do consider them to be message films, and the messages are, by and large, liberal messages. But that ought not surprise anybody. Hollywood is overwhelmingly liberal.

In the last 1,000 years, the Arabs have translated as many books as Spain translates in just one year.

Raising a child is an on-the-job kind of thing. There arent a whole lot of manuals for that.

The welfare state is an assault on families.

Because Fox News is allegedly biased in favor of conservatives, critics whine like children whose lunch money got snatched. Conservatives have been pummeled for decades. Now that Fox News and conservative talk radio give people alternatives, critics squeal as if being sodomized.

People-to-people charity is more efficient, less costly, more human and compassionate, and more likely to inspire change and self-sufficiency in the beneficiary.

Whatever happened to Warren Buffett, the world's their-richest man? Guilt, a feeling of being blessed by luck, forgotten lessons - who knows? In any case, Buffett now believe that government should redistribute the wealth earned by others to those who did not earn it.

According to the Social Security Administration, in 1945, 41.9 workers supported each individual retiree, while today only 3.3 workers support each retiree. This system cannot continue.

Conservatives consider liberals well-intentioned, but misguided. Liberals consider conservatives not only wrong, but really, really bad people.

Bad schools, crime, drugs, high taxes, the social security mess, racism, the health care ? crisis? unemployment, welfare state dependency, illegitimacy, the gap between rich and poor. What do these issues have in common? Politicians, the media, and our so-called leaders lie to us about them. They lie about the cause. They lie about the effect. They lie about the solutions.

Optimism. It's not just a mind-set, it is behavior.

Good motives aside, white condescension does more damage than good. White condescension says to a black child, 'The rules used by other ethnic groups don't apply to you. Forget about work hard, get an education, posses good values. No, for you, we'll alter the rules by lowering the standards and expecting less.' Expect less, get less.

Recall that the United Nations commissioned Arab scholars and analysts to publish the Arab Human Development Report. What causes the backwardness, the scholars wondered, of 22 Arab states, covering nearly 300 million people? Their conclusion? Of all world regions, the Arab countries scored the lowest in freedom, media independence, civil liberties, political process and political rights.

But did the Founding Fathers ever intend for the federal government to involve itself in education, health care or retirement benefits? The answer, quite clearly, is no. The Constitution, in Article I, Section 8 - which contains the general welfare clause - seeks to restrain federal government, not expand it.