Viktor Vekselberg Quotes
Countries that have tremendous financial resources built fabulous buildings which are half-empty, and streets which have no one on them.
In the beginning of the 21st century governments with large financial resources developed many buildings and communities as did in some capitalistic countries private firms. Many were successful but there were some failures almost everywhere. However after the Meltdown of 2008 and the Great Recession many large buildings and communities the world over were under-utilized and in many cases not used at all. Proportionately, Ireland, Spain and Greece had the worst problem (public as well as provate). However just because of size and wealth, the United States and China had the most unused buildings and communities that were developed. However, many economists and developers argue that even of those projects were failures, the buildings, streets, sewers, utilities and infrastructure will be there and when the economy heats up, they will be used.
Viktor Vekselberg, Ukrainian Economist, Businessman, Capitalist and Oligarch, Quoted in Chrystia Freeland, “The Next Russian Revolution”, The Atlantic, October 2011
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
At a 1935 New York City hearing into the operations of the city Relief Administration during the great depression. He was asked what he taught the relief recipients to do in his training program. He then explained that this was the old pioneer designation for weaving ropes and similar handicrafts. The phrase has been used ever since in politics. See Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
He and the other commissioners of both political parties were agreed that the procurement by The State Department, USAID, and especially the Defense Department which spent the most was terrible. The even had military generals in charge of billions of dollars of procurement who did not even know the procurement laws and regulations they were supposed to obey much less the skill of good procurement.
Moses became the greatest “builder” the world had ever known. The Bridges and tunnels into New York, the highways in the city and Long Island, the development of Fire Island and the World Trade Center were all his work. Babbitt was a very large building and construction contractor. The Cold War was ongoing and his reference to civilian defense was an absurd notion of the 1950s that building bomb shelters in cities and homes could protect the civilian population in the event of nuclear attack. This was actually an official government position and program.
His definition of foreign aid given in this quotation is a classic example of political rhetoric. It is exaggerated somewhat, but basically true. The poor in America do not really pay much in taxes that would pay for foreign aid. However the middle class does. In the foreign counties much of the foreign aid money gets siphoned off by graft and corruption which is inevitably dominated by some of the rich of the country. Even if the money is spent without any graft or bribery, materials have to be procured and labor has to be supplied and foreign rich people own the companies which make the profits selling goods, labor and services to the foreign aid projects. In some nations the rich had set up a two-tier pricing for their products and services. One for normal business and commerce; a higher one for foreign aid projects.
The "spigot" refers to the fact that immediately after the 9-11 attack, huge sums of money were available and the Department of Homeland Security was created by moving many different agencies from other departments into the new department. There were poor or no fiscal controls, and at the same time the public officials of the new department were under such extreme pressure lest there might be another attack that they went forward with almost every scheme that anyone claimed would make the nation safer. Most were useless and some just frauds, and much money was wasted. What is particularly interesting about this quotation is that a high government official admitted that things were handled badly and money had been wasted.
Viktor Felixovich Vekselberg is a Russian billionaire businessman. He is the owner and president of Renova Group, a Russian conglomerate. According to Forbes, as of October 2019, his fortune is estimated at $11.4 billion, making him the 119th richest person in the world.
