“For the corporation executives, the military metaphysic often coincides with their interest in a stable and planned flow of profit; it enables them to have their risk underwritten by public money; it enables them reasonably to expect that they can exploit for private profit now and later, the risky research developments paid for by public money. It is, in brief, a mask of the subsidized capitalism from which they extract profit and upon which their power is based.”
The Causes of World War Three (1960)
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C. Wright Mills 55
American sociologist 1916–1962Related quotes

On Democrats and Republicans
Harvard interview (February 2004)
Source: 1940s, The Economics of Peace, 1945, p. 239

Source: Theory of Economic Dynamics (1965), Chapter 3, The Determinants of Profits, p. 52

1930s, State of the Union Address (1935)
Context: We find our population suffering from old inequalities, little changed by vast sporadic remedies. In spite of our efforts and in spite of our talk, we have not weeded out the over privileged and we have not effectively lifted up the underprivileged. Both of these manifestations of injustice have retarded happiness. No wise man has any intention of destroying what is known as the profit motive; because by the profit motive we mean the right by work to earn a decent livelihood for ourselves and for our families.
We have, however, a clear mandate from the people, that Americans must forswear that conception of the acquisition of wealth which, through excessive profits, creates undue private power over private affairs and, to our misfortune, over public affairs as well. In building toward this end we do not destroy ambition, nor do we seek to divide our wealth into equal shares on stated occasions. We continue to recognize the greater ability of some to earn more than others. But we do assert that the ambition of the individual to obtain for him and his a proper security, a reasonable leisure, and a decent living throughout life, is an ambition to be preferred to the appetite for great wealth and great power.

Source: 1930s- 1950s, The End of Economic Man (1939), p. 37

Source: Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917), Chapter Two

Source: No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies 1999, Chapter Eleven, "Breeding Disloyalty"