Martin Schulz Quotes

Are we really going to let the world become a global market without any laws except those of the jungle?

If you allow for a purely capitalistic society, without any type of regulation at all, you will get one monopoly that will eat all of the smaller fish and own everything, and then you'll have zero capitalism, zero competition - it would just be one giant company.

Globalization must be controlled.

Can one name a single nation that has not turned to the West in its quest for civilization?

The civilized world is far ahead of us. We have no choice but to catch up.

Men may differ as to the particular form of governmental activity with respect to industry and business, but nearly all are agreed that private enterprise in times such as these cannot be left without assistance and without reasonable safeguards lest it destroy not only itself but also our processes of civilization.

Globalization has made multinationals more accountable, and accountable to whomever has the highest standards, rather than the lowest ones.

We have got to put a human face on the global economy.

Corporate executives are not all that conservative….They are not interested in the social issues and the big boys and girls are not interested in fighting regulation because that’s what keeps the little boys and girls from becoming big boys and girls.

Globalization is very difficult to understand and almost impossible to regulate.

We saw that the free market economy was not enough when the Harvard boys failed to deliver free market capitalism to Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed.

Capitalism with airbags—the type of capitalism I am a fan of.

We need new laws to rein in the forces of greed and to curb those ingenious legal advisors of the holders of vast corporate wealth.

Our system of market capitalism wasn't handed down, in perfect form, on stone tablets. We wrote the rules. We broke them. And we can fix them.

I actually am a capitalist, and I believe in shareholders. But I believe in them as a result of what I do, not as a reason for what I'm doing. The same with profits - profits alone cannot be an objective. It has to have a purpose.

Between the Great Depression and the 1970s, private business was viewed with suspicion even in most capitalist economies. Businesses were, so the story goes, seen as anti-social agents whose profit-seeking needed to be restrained for other, supposedly loftier, goals, such as justice, social harmony, protection of the weak and even national glory.

All the evils, abuses, and iniquities, popularly ascribed to businessmen and to capitalism, were not caused by an unregulated economy or by a free market, but by government intervention into the economy.

A free market was never meant to be a free licence to take whatever you can get, however you can get it.

We in America count on the profit motive to get people to do the right thing. That's our basic American notion when it comes to business.

I think we have moved from a shareholder society to a stakeholder society, and that has massive implications.

The success of the Starbucks has been based on this balance between profitability and a social conscience. Everywhere we're doing business, were trying to manage the business through the lens of humanity.

I never wanted to be a businessman; I was a craftsman and good at working with my hands. At some point, I decided that this company is my best resource. Patagonia now exists to put into practice all the things that smart people are saying we have to do not only to save the planet but to save the economy.

For over a century, popular struggles in the democracies have used the nation-state to temper raw capitalism. The power of voters has offset the power of capital. But as national barriers have come down in the name of freer commerce, so has the capacity of governments to manage capitalism in a broad public interest. So the real issue is not "trade" but democratic governance.

We believe that business can be a tool for social good.

It will not be any European statesman who will unite Europe: Europe will be united by the Chinese.