Matthew Yglesias Quotes & Sayings

I'm not observant, personally, but if I ever see a priest resurrect the dead before my eyes I promise to revisit my atheism. — Matthew Yglesias

I'm a liberal - I believe in subsidies for public goods and in regulations to curb harmful externalities, but neither of those things exist when it comes to parking. — Matthew Yglesias

Ultimately, I think the United States is a pretty awesome country but it very plausibly would have been even awesomer had English and American political leaders in the late 18th century been farsighted enough to find compromises that would have held the empire together. — Matthew Yglesias

A system in which legal police shootings of unarmed civilians are a common occurrence is a system that has some serious flaws. In this case, the drawback is a straightforward consequence of America's approach to firearms. A well-armed citizenry required an even-better-armed constabulary. Widespread gun ownership creates a systematic climate of fear on the part of the police. The result is a quantity of police shootings that, regardless of the facts of any particular case, is just staggeringly high. Young black men, in particular, are paying the price for America's gun culture. — Matthew Yglesias

It's rare that you have a policy issue that can be solved by throwing more money at the problem, but the technology to make bus service more frequent and equip buses with GPS systems that provide real-time schedule updates to bus stops exists and operates in many parts of the world. We should be installing it in our major cities. — Matthew Yglesias

A normal recession disrupts people's lives, but a long recession destroys them. You lose output, prosperity, family stability, self-esteem, and many other qualities on what looks to be a semi-permanent basis. — Matthew Yglesias

In practice, US officials seem to know better than to indulge in the patriotic myth that our constitution is the greatest system of government ever devised. — Matthew Yglesias

I'm trying to inform people, so I try to present them with accurate information. — Matthew Yglesias

I'm against government-subsidized parking and government-mandated parking. — Matthew Yglesias

The United States Postal Service has a problem. People aren't sending as much mail as they used to. That means less postage revenue and difficulty paying the bills. — Matthew Yglesias

Your time as a manager is finite and valuable. — Matthew Yglesias

The environmental movement's focus on the Keystone XL pipeline issue really used to baffle me. — Matthew Yglesias