Just for the record, are you telling me that it will make NO difference in the freedom and opportunity offered by the United States if the culture changed from one that valued promises and written contracts, to one that sees promises and contracts as conveniences to be broken when they don't benefit you anymore or circumventend by bribes when inconvenient (as is the culture in several South American countries)? Please explain how that cultural change would not fundamentally alter the structure of our government and our freedoms.
The United States is culturally superior to every other nation, regardless of our racial composition, because in the past we were so good at inculcating immigrants with the "American" culture. Now we can't, because it isn't politically correct, and we will see serious repercussions from it. The solution isn't to end immigration; it is to restart our cultural education efforts...
Ah yes, our vaunted superior business culture, the apotheosis of which is ..... ENRON!
ENRON demonstrates that white-bread, (christian) God-fearing, good-ole goobbers from Texas can lie, cheat and steal with the best of the third-world grifters. But you are right about one thing - we do have a superior business climate in this country. because those fine, upstanding crooks in Armani suits won't get away with it. Thanks to strong market regulation - enforced by agencies created by Teddy Roosevelt and the progressive Republicans - the Enron consigliari will be held accountable. It is rather humorous that the same folk who fume over immigration also deride agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission as "socialists." And that reminds me - from which cultural tradition did Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles spring?
Many immigrants come here to escape oppression and to enjoy our superior business climate. And once here, they are fiercely supportive and protective of our business climate and the system of regulation that keeps it honest - unlike many of the native-born, who constantly whine about "socialism." Perhaps that's because the immigrant know what true socialism is, and the native-born whiners simply don't have a clue.
"The dozen or so investigations may turn up something to embarrass the White House, especially if Bush pulls another "executive privilege" when Congress wants facts. But the scandal I see in this corporate debacle is non- political; it's professional."
"This affair shows the accounting profession all too often to be in bed with the oldest profession. Accounting standards have been frequently prostituted by the new Uriah Heeps: these are executives in ever-merging firms afraid to challenge their clients' phony numbers and secret self-dealing because they might lose fees in the lucrative consulting business they run on the side."
"These no-account accountants seem to forget that the "p" in C.P.A. means "public." The Big Five are silent about Andersengate because they are eager to become the Big Four by carving up their competitor's carcass. That's why it's harder to find a major bean-counter willing to condemn publicly the failures of Arthur Andersen & Co. than to find a top Muslim cleric willing to criticize Osama bin Laden."
"Although Andersen executives may try to cop a plea by ratting on the client they so supinely and profitably enabled, they must explain why, as the biggest bankruptcy in history loomed, their supervisors were so eager to remind those working on the Enron account to destroy records."
"Self-dealing; asset-hiding; insider stock-dumping — all these were supposedly beyond the ken of an audit committee and legal counsel blindly reliant on the ethics and standards of "professional" accountants. It's a scandal, all right, and wrongdoers should pay in heavy civil damages if not jail time."
"But based on what we now know, it's not a political scandal. Bush's people, including former employees or consultants of Enron, did right by refusing to bail a campaign contributor out of its mess at public expense or by misleading investors. Taxpayers should be grateful."