08/31/2026
The quote comes from August 16, 1931, when the United States was deep in the Great Depression.
Will Rogers wrote: “No Country ever had more, and no Country ever had less. Ten men in our Country could buy the World, and ten million can’t buy enough to eat.”
Rogers was one of America’s most popular humorists and political commentators. By 1931, the economic collapse that began in 1929 had produced enormous unemployment and hardship, even though the United States still possessed immense agricultural and industrial capacity.
Rogers repeatedly pointed out this contradiction: America could produce extraordinary amounts of food and goods, yet millions of people lacked the money to buy them.
Rogers increasingly focused on unemployment and inequality during the Depression, arguing that Americans who wanted to work should be able to work and receive a more equitable share of the wealth they helped produce.
