Philip Slater

Philip Elliot Slater (May 15, 1927 – June 20, 2013) was an American sociologist and author.

Quotes

• Our economy is based on spending billions to persuade people that happiness is buying things, and then insisting that the only way to have a viable economy is to make things for people to buy so they'll have jobs and get enough money to buy things.
  • The Pursuit of Loneliness (1970)[1990], p. 165.
• The idea that everybody wants money is propaganda circulated by wealth addicts to make themselves feel better about their addiction.
  • Wealth Addiction (1980). New York: Dutton. p. 25.
• Conflict will never be eliminated from human affairs. Conflict is simply the active expression of difference, and an essential part of human development. Without conflict change would be impossible. Our goal as a species at this point in our development is to mold a world in which conflict can be contained within a larger embracing understanding—the realization that we share certain goals and aspirations in common, no matter how much we scream at each other about procedures.
  • A Dream Deferred: America's Discontent and the Search for a New Democratic Ideal (1992). Boston: Beacon Press. p. 29.