From: kuch@reed.edu (Jerry Kuch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Perot ?
Date: 22 Aug 92 00:42:03 GMT
Organization: Death's Doorstep

In article <BtCy0A.MCB@starnine.com> mikeh@starnine.com (Mike Haas) writes:
>In article <3564@faatcrl.UUCP> jprad@faatcrl.UUCP (Jack Radigan) writes:
>>mikeh@starnine.com (Mike Haas) writes:
>>
>>>>  It's representitive of everything wrong with American business today.
>>
>>>Not at all.  What's wrong with business today is exemplified by
>>>practices like leverage buyouts, look-and-feel lawsuits, hostile takeovers,
>>>etc.
>>
>>  Look and feel is not an endemic problem, it's primarily the domain of Apple
>>and Lotus.
>>
>>  Leveraged buyouts and hostile takeovers are two manifestations of the "merger
>>mania" that occured during the later half of the 80's, but that also isn't the
>>root problem.
>
>>
>>  What's wrong is the short-sighted profit motive these corporations all seem
>>to be guilty of.  Obscene CEO and other "inner sanctum" salaries are a side
>>effect of this method of doing business.
>
>The "root problem", the thread that runs true through all the above
>practices is a lack of good faith, the non-existance of being above-board
>and forthright.  LBO's and hostile takeovers caused many of America's
>strongest companies to lessen their assets...borrow to the hilt...to
>make them less attractive to the predators who use these techniques to
>wrestle control away from those who ran their companies successfully.
>
>Look-and-feel lawasuits ARE a prime tool of Apple etc, and I hold
>them responsible (at least to a partial, significant degree) for the
>downturn in hi-tech industries activity in this country.  They have
>caused companies to curtail honest, productive advancements.
>
>Bell Labs gave the transistor away to the world.  Where would we be
>had they done otherwise?
>
>However, I do believe that we need to pay productive CEO's mega bucks to
>pilot our mega-companies...IF we expect them to remain or once-again
>become mega-companies.  That money can be well-spent, and returned many
>times over, with the right CEO's.
>
>>
>>>The world is now a more dangerous place than at any other time in history.
>>>This is no time to cut the defence budget by 90%, as Clinton
>>>proposes.
>>
>>  Just when did it become the exclusive domain of the United States to become
>>the World Police?
>
>When it became in our self-interest to do so.  And being the most
>powerful nation on the planet IS in our self interest.  And you better
>believe that ANY country that COULD have the infuence we do, WOULD.
>
>It's a damn good thing that we're nice guys who believe in freedom.

Uhhh, sure.  Various bits of evidence as to what nice guys the U.S. has 
become in its self interest include:

	Nicaragua
	Guatemala
	Laos
	East Timor
	El Salvador
	Cambodia
	Vietnam

Perhaps you should rephrase your sentence to:  "It's a damn good thing we're
nice guys who believe in freedom when it suits us, when it benefits us and
when we can exploit it in our own self interest.  In cases where this is not
true, it's a damn good thing we believe in murder, terror, oppression and
intimidation."

To quote George F. Kennan, the kindly, old sagely grandfather of U.S. 
diplomacy, as written in State Department docuument PPS23, February 1948:

"We have about 50 percent of the world's wealth, but only 6.3 percent of
 its population... In this situation, we cannot fail to be the object of
 envy and resentment.  Our real task in the coming period is to
 devise a pattern of relationships which will permit us to maintain 
 this position of disparity...We need not deceive ourselves that we 
 can afford today the luxury of altruism and world-benefaction...We should
 cease to talk about vague... and unreal objectives such as human rights,
 the raising of the living standards and democratization.  The day is not
 far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts.
 The less we are hampered by idealistic slogans, the better."

Thus spoke a nice guy who believed in freedom.


-- 
Jerry Kuch (t-gerldk@microsoft.com) | "Sic Gorgianus Allos Subjectatus Nunc."
  "I was wrong to play God.  Life is precious, not a thing to be toyed with.
   Now take out that brain and flush it down the toilet." - Montgomery Burns
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy