''America’s idealism, optimism, and spirit of self-reliance, its celebration of concerted action, its suspicion of the abstract, its handson practicality, its recognition that in hard times people need one a nother—all these have created the unique American character, a character that has inspired people around the globe. But the America of today is in a state of confusion. We don’t see our problems clearly; or if we do, we often—out of inertia, fear, or greed—fail to deal with them. We too frequently live in the past or revel in the present i nstead of adopting the actions that would secure the future. The federal government has amassed an enormous debt in just the last ten years. Many of our state and local governments, far from being laboratories of democracy, have pursued the “free lunch,” spending lavishly on pensions and health care and then handing on the bill to future state administrations. Much of the financial sector seems unable to decide whether it wants to help build a new world or suck the life out of the declining one. The corporate sector is consumed with the short term, trapped in a financial prison of stock buybacks and quarterly earnings reports, unable to invest or hire in its own long-term interest. Ten years ago, sixty-one U.S. companies had triple-A bond ratings; today there are four. Our culture also seems excessively coarse, marked by gratuitous violence and sex without meaning. Everywhere people are making excuses for their failures, from the athletic field to the corporate boardroom, and then salving their mistakes in the warm balm of public relations. As long as you act ahair’s width within your lawyer’s definitions of the law, you get apass that exempts you from doing what is not just legal but also right'' - Bill Bradley
http://www.billbradley.com/assets/PDF/We-Can-All-Do-Better-Chapter-1.pdf; http://eastwestaccord.com/page/2/
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