If you've picked up one thing from "Statement to the Court," it's that Debs is super critical of greedy rich people. On the flip side of the wealth coin, Debs portrays the poor as possessing a kind of nobility in their unceasing life struggle.
Debs, after all, was a Bible-reader and -quoter and he would probably have agreed that "it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." As a Socialist, Debs felt that society's wealth should be jointly shared by all; he even used the term commonwealth to describe the ideal state. For Debs, inequalities in wealth were the root of all that was wrong in his America.
Questions About Wealth
- How does Debs show his own, personal disdain for wealth?
- According to Debs, how does the desire for personal wealth lead to all kinds of injustice?
- Where does Debs argue that the lust for wealth is not Christian?
- What irony does Debs find in the fact that America is in many ways so rich and abundant?
- What would Debs make of income inequality as a political issue in our time?
Chew on This
Is money the root of all evil, according to Debs?
Debs charged his working-class audience for tickets for most of his speeches—this must have been a stance that took some ideological twisting.