Economic inequality is not about food stamps and homeless

In the words of Mike Quigley, “Economic inequality is not about food stamps and homeless shelters. It is about being a devotee of social justice and equality.” These words strike with both urgency and clarity. Too often, men and women think of poverty as merely the absence of bread, as though hunger alone defines the plight of the poor. Yet Quigley reminds us that inequality is not merely about survival—it is about the dignity of the human spirit. To reduce it to food stamps and shelters is to treat the wound’s surface, while leaving the deeper sickness unchecked.

The ancients knew this truth well. In Athens, Solon the lawgiver saw his people enslaved by debt, their bodies sold, their freedoms lost. He did not merely throw crumbs to the suffering; he struck at the root of injustice by erasing debts and declaring no Athenian could be enslaved by another. His reforms were not charity, but justice. For what is social justice, if not the ordering of society so that all may live in dignity, free from chains visible and invisible?

Quigley’s words also speak of devotion. He calls us to be devotees of justice, not casual sympathizers. To be a devotee is to live in faithfulness, to make justice not a passing concern but a sacred calling. Just as priests in the temple tended the flame of the gods, so must citizens in a democracy tend the flame of equality. This requires sacrifice, endurance, and an unyielding spirit, for injustice is a many-headed serpent, always rising anew.

History gives us vivid examples. In the United States, Martin Luther King Jr. saw that poverty, racism, and inequality were not separate evils but one woven net. When he spoke of the “arc of the moral universe,” he declared that true victory would not come from feeding the hungry alone, but from reshaping the very structures that allowed hunger, homelessness, and exclusion to persist. His devotion to social justice was not charity, but revolution of the heart and the law.

Yet let us not mistake Quigley’s message as a rejection of aid to the poor. Shelters and food are necessary, but they are not sufficient. To stop there is to give medicine for the fever while ignoring the disease. Bread must be given today, yes, but tomorrow the system that denies bread to so many must be broken and remade. This is the heart of equality: not handouts that ease suffering for a season, but justice that builds a world where all may thrive.

The lesson for us is clear: economic inequality is not a problem for the poor alone—it is the sickness of the whole body of society. A nation that tolerates deep divisions of wealth and opportunity corrodes from within. To ignore this is to build a house upon sand, where storms will surely come. But to face it with devotion to social justice is to lay foundations on rock, where all may stand together.

Practical actions follow from this wisdom. Educate yourself on the roots of inequality—not only its symptoms, but its causes in policy, history, and power. Raise your voice in defense of those silenced, not only giving to charity but also demanding justice from leaders. Examine your own life, asking whether your choices perpetuate division or build solidarity. And above all, commit daily acts of fairness, whether in the workplace, the market, or the home, for justice begins not only in courts but in hearts.

Thus, Quigley’s words shine as both a rebuke and a call. Economic inequality is not about tokens of relief, but about transformation. To be a devotee of social justice and equality is to live as though every stranger is kin, every injustice an injury to your own soul. Let these words be carved upon the minds of generations, that we may not grow weary in the struggle, but rise each day with renewed devotion to build a society worthy of all its people.