John Kenneth Galbraith Quotes

It's very important that the government is close to the business community and that we understand their concerns. But at some point, the government needs to be a government.

We (British) have reached the state where the private sector is that part of the economy the government controls and the public sector is that part that nobody controls.

We would write an amendment to the Constitution giving the Federal Government the right to regulate all private business and to enter into any business which it deemed proper …

I do not dread these corporations as instruments of power to destroy this country, because there are a thousand agencies which can regulate, restrain and control them.

In the past few months, as a result of our action, we have demanded of many citizens that they surrender certain licenses to do as they please in their business relationships; but we have asked this in exchange for the protection which the state can give against exploitation by their fellow men or by combinations of their fellow men.

More and more it is evident that the State and if necessary the Nation, has got to possess the right of supervision and control as regards the great corporations.

There are lots of levels of fear and complaint about the government getting involved in business. First and foremost, of course, is incompetence.

The power of the State must be invoked for restoring economic freedom just as it has been invoked for destroying economic freedom.

When the private sector fails, the solution is more government. When the government fails, the solution is more government.

State intervention in economic production arises only when private initiative is lacking or insufficient, or when the political interests of the State are involved. This intervention may take the form of control, assistance or direct management.

I think that there is absolutely no free market in modern industrial states.

China is a government-oriented economy. No one can say he can run his business entirely without government connections. Anybody who says that he or she can do things alone... is a hypocrite.

I do not believe that the government is in any position to say exactly how every single business and every single activity shall reach those performances.

The New Deal's enmity for that system of free and competitive private enterprise which we call capitalism was fundamental.

Canada was built from its very beginnings on the belief that public leadership in the economy and on social issues would be as effective and cheap as anything done by the private sector.

The mere declaration by a legislature that a business is affected with a public interest is not conclusive of the question whether its attempted regulation on that ground is justified.

Why should I nationalize the industry. I shall nationalize the people.

Government and business should remain distinct and separate, one directed from Washington, the other from New York.

I am firmly opposed to the Government entering any business the major purpose of which is competition with our citizens.

The wise rule of action is to restrict the powers of corporations within the … constitutional barrier.

The great corporations which we have grown to speak of rather loosely as trusts are the creatures of the State, and the State not only has the right to control them, but it is duty bound to control them wherever the need of such control is shown.

I believe that we need to take government out of business, and then we need to take business and put business back into government because government has no place in our businesses

We do not wish to discourage enterprise. We do not desire to destroy corporations. We do desire to put them fully at the service of the State and the people.

We feel that the government should not interfere too much in private sector.

We're concerned with a powerful government who is telling General Motors now, maybe, what they can charge for their automobiles. Indeed, if the government owns 61 percent, they can do that.