A brass balance scale with a pile of gold coins outweighing a small white porcelain feather on a deep green background.

Original artwork, not a still

Cosmo

Pollution. Crime. Drugs, poverty, disease, hunger, despair--we throw gobs of money at them and problems only get worse. Why is that? Because money's most powerful ability is to allow bad people to continue doing bad things at the expense of those who don't have it.

— Sneakers

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

Cosmo rejects the assumption that spending more automatically solves social problems. His argument turns toward the power money gives its holders, including the ability to continue causing harm. The contrast places attempted remedies beside an unequal distribution of influence, making the source of the problem part of the proposed cure.

Context reviewed

Share this quote