money talks

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the observation that wealth confers power, influence, and the ability to achieve desired outcomes in ways that lack of money cannot; money talks expresses a cynical or realistic assessment of the role of financial resources in determining access to politicians, courts, media, social opportunities, and the goods and services that constitute quality of life; the phrase is used to explain decisions that seem to contradict stated principles, and as a sardonic commentary on the gap between the values a society professes and the material incentives that actually drive behaviour; it acknowledges, without necessarily endorsing, the structural reality that economic power translates into social and political power across virtually all domains of modern life