Harriet Harman quote: “For many young people, social mobility now means a bus down to the job centre.”

“Bus driver, bus driver, the sirens have gone,
The bombs may come down, but the buses go on;
Bus driver, I know you won't think me a snob
If I whisper: "Bus driver, I don't want your job."”

A. P. Herbert (1890–1971) British politician

"Seeing It Through", London Transport poster by Eric Kennington (1944).

“I'm afraid you gave up the right to pontificate on social mobility when you abolished educational maintenance allowance [EMA], trebled tuition fees and betrayed a generation of young people.”

Harriet Harman (1950) British politician

On Nick Clegg's social mobility pledges, during a debate in the House of Commons http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/apr/05/nick-clegg-child-poverty-social-mobility, 5 April 2011.

“We're not even number one in social mobility. Social mobility means basically the American dream, the ability of one generation to do better than the next. We're tenth. That's like Sweden coming tenth in Swedish meatballs.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Larry King Live interview (2010)
Context: I don't hate America. I love America. I want it to be better. The only way we can get it to be better is to realistically criticize what's wrong with it. That's not what the Republicans do. … I don't want to be a pessimist. I'm a realist. One man's realist is another man's pessimist. But, no, I'm not like Mitt Romney, whose book is called No Apology, the Case for American Greatness. Really? Always waving the big foam number one finger; we're not number one in most things. We're number one in military. We're number one in money. We're number one in fat toddlers, meth labs, and people we send to prison. We're not number one in literacy, money spent on education. We're not even number one in social mobility. Social mobility means basically the American dream, the ability of one generation to do better than the next. We're tenth. That's like Sweden coming tenth in Swedish meatballs.

“During the next 10 years about 1.2 billion young 15-to-30-year-olds will be entering the job market and with the means now at our disposal about 300 million will get a job. What will we offer these young, about a billion of them?”

Martti Ahtisaari (1937) Finnish politician and former President of Finland

or will we leave them to be recruited by criminal leagues and terrorists? … I think this is one of the greatest challenges if we want to achieve peaceful development and hope for these young.
Interview with Finnish YLE TV, quoted in "Nobel Peace Prize winner wants jobs for the young" in International Herald Tribune (11 October 2008) http://web.archive.org/web/20081012063102/http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/11/europe/EU-Finland-Nobel-Peace.php

“Now, Social Security through the years, for many many people, has been a terrible investment. It's really a tax, that's all it is. Social Security is a tax.”

Todd Akin (1947) American politician

Washington Minute, CSPAN, , quoted in * 2011-03-19
GOP Rep. Todd Akin On Social Security: ‘I Don’t Like It’
Alex
Seitz-Wald
Think Progress
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/03/19/151641/todd-akin-i-dont-like-social-security/

“Next he will be foxtrotting down to the Tory party's fundraising ball, auctioning City internships for the children of the highest bidder. Is that not the Government's idea of social mobility?”

Harriet Harman (1950) British politician

On Nick Clegg's social mobility pledges, during a debate in the House of Commons http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8441262/Harriet-Harman-facing-questions-over-sons-internship.html, 11 April 2011.

“Capitalism place money at the centre of everything. While Socialism make the man at the centre of the universe.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“What does it mean that social structures among young people are so often predicated upon trying really, really hard to appear to not-be-trying?”

Hank Green (1980) American vlogger

Hank Has Questions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPjFnQRgDDE
Youtube

“Now, you're either on the bus or off the bus. If you're on the bus, and you get left behind, then you'll find it again. If you're off the bus in the first place — then it won't make a damn.”

Ken Kesey (1935–2001) novelist

Source: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), Ch. 6 : The Bus
Context: There are going to be times when we can't wait for somebody. Now, you're either on the bus or off the bus. If you're on the bus, and you get left behind, then you'll find it again. If you're off the bus in the first place — then it won't make a damn.

“During the next 10 years about 1.2 billion young 15-to-30-year-olds will be entering the job market and with the means now at our disposal about 300 million will get a job. What will we offer these young, about a billion of them? — or will we leave them to be recruited by criminal leagues and terrorists? … I think this is one of the greatest challenges if we want to achieve peaceful development and hope for these young.”

Martti Ahtisaari (1937) Finnish politician and former President of Finland

Interview with Finnish YLE TV, quoted in "Nobel Peace Prize winner wants jobs for the young" in International Herald Tribune (11 October 2008) http://web.archive.org/web/20081012063102/http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/10/11/europe/EU-Finland-Nobel-Peace.php

“For many young people, social mobility now means a bus down to the job centre.”

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