It turns out that advancing equal opportunity and economic empowerment is both morally right and good economics, because discrimination, poverty and ignorance restrict growth, while investments in education, infrastructure and scientific and technological research increase it, creating more good jobs and new wealth for all of us.

Clinton frames social justice and economic performance as mutually reinforcing rather than competing aims. The quote argues that equal opportunity and empowerment are not only ethical imperatives but also pragmatic growth strategies: discrimination and deprivation waste human capital, suppress productivity, and narrow markets, while public investments (education, infrastructure, research) expand skills, connectivity, and innovation. The underlying significance is a “broad-based growth” philosophy associated with centrist Democratic governance in the 1990s—using targeted public investment and inclusion to raise long-run economic capacity. It also functions rhetorically to build bipartisan appeal by translating moral claims into economic outcomes: fairness becomes a driver of competitiveness and job creation.