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Richard Nixon on CorporationsPresident of the U.S., 1968-1974 |
A united Europe has not only advantages but also disadvantages for the United States. We clearly benefit from the rise of a stronger and more cohesive political unit to balance Moscow, thereby permitting a reduction in our military role in Europe. We will also gain from having more active partners in Europe to grapple with regional crises around the world.
We should open American business schools in each East European country to teach skills required to make the nuts and bolts of capitalism work. These nations need not only financial but also human capital. Those who advocate a Marshall Plan for Eastern Europe are totally unrealistic. While the nations of Eastern Europe, like those of Western Europe after WWII, are democracies, they do not have a management class capable of effectively using such aid.
When people are out of work, corporate executives earning 7 figures a year make easy targets. But in better times, they make decisions that put people back to work.
Greed is not good. But wealth is, if it is used to good purpose. While capitalism may be driven by greed, it produces wealth, and democratic institutions help a society decide how its wealth should be used. Communism punishes greed by seizing wealth, and then totalitarian institutions are needed to manage the grinding poverty that is produced instead.