Perspective

Fortnightly Magazine - January 15 1995
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I am under siege. To be more precise, my company and American corporations in general are under siege. In popular media today, corporations are consistently treated as suspect at best (em and demonized at worst. If you switch off your critical faculties when you watch television or go to the movies, you're probably convinced that corporate America is out to destroy this country. In 1964, while campaigning for Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan framed the issue perfectly. He said there are too many people "who can't see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion that the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one." In other words, the relationship between business and individuals is parasitic. Corporate America is getting fat at the expense of ordinary citizens. The perception so painstakingly cultivated by the media is that, left to our own devices, we will gladly destroy forests and oceans and the air and even people, if doing so will clear the way to higher profits.

Am I exaggerating? Look at the evidence.

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