Paul Blanshard Quotes

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.

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.

Free competition and the open market system as they were known in the old days, have lost their places in the system, and that the only substitute for them, in these modern times, is government regulation and control.

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.

Regulation of private enterprise and not Government ownership or operation is the course rightly to be pursued in our relation to business.

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.

To say that only those businesses affected with a public interest may be regulated is but another way of stating that all those businesses which may be regulated are affected with a public interest.

No business is above government, and government must be empowered to deal adequately with any business that tries to rise above government.

In areas where competitive markets work well beyond question, they are constantly under attack by government—members of both parties.

In matters relating to business, finance, industrial and labor conditions, health and the public welfare, great leeway is now granted the legislature, for there is no guarantee in the Constitution that the status quo will be preserved against regulation by government.

We want free markets, but the markets are not going to take care of themselves in all cases.

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.

The state has an active role to play in ensuring that there is equilibrium between the constituent parts of the economy, the consumers and the producers.

The issue is always the same: the government or the market. There is no third solution.

We want government to control business and industry enough to protect us as consumers from being cheated, but we oppose government interference in private enterprise. We want government to ensure standards and equality in education, but many of us balk at the idea of a government-imposed curriculum.

It is right to intervene when markets are not working and people are getting hurt.

I start with a concern about the growth of federal government. I start with a perspective concerned about the growth of that power, and containing it within the bounds of the Constitution.

We want a free market, but we know that the paradox of a 'free' market is that sometimes you have to intervene. You have to make sure it's not the law of the jungle but the laws of democracy that works.

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.

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

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 no longer have a free market in the United States, we have a government controlled free market.

I think Barack Obama and his team believe that the federal government is best prepared to handle virtually everything in our lives. I mean, they're socialists in every respect of the word and I think they'd like to take over everything in our lives if they could, including health care.

I've never been antiregulation. I've always believed that raw, unregulated capitalism doesn't work.

When the government gets involved in pricing, I don't think it's the right way to look at a business.