Tuesday, May 17, 2005
CNN Founder Has Jobs for Grads
Source: Concord Monitor Wagging his finger and grinning as he spoke, Ted Turner delighted the crowd at the New England College commencement yesterday, inviting graduates to work at his restaurant chain, giving pointers on how to make friends at a bar and joking about not being able to afford retirement.
The media mogul scored frequent applause during his freewheeling address, but he also hit several serious notes, challenging the latest generation of graduates to effect social change.
Outlining what he dubbed the four greatest challenges facing the world, Turner - who has contributed more than $1 billion to global charities - called for an end to nuclear weapons, the creation of a 21st-century "Marshall Plan" for switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy, the redistribution of wealth to build a worldwide middle class, and the abandonment of military-centric government ways.
"I'm about the hundredth richest man in the world, and I think there ought to be inheritance taxes, too. And I don't like taxes particularly. But if you don't have inheritance taxes, Bill Gates's family - in another 50 or 75 years - is going to own the whole country, and everybody's going to be working for Bill Gates. (And then) there won't be an opportunity to go into the food-service business."
Or, this plea for a reduction in America's defense budget, which he said represents more than half of the globe's $800 billion in annual military spending:
"Are we hated that much that we've got to spend more than everybody else put together on military might just so we can terrify all these little countries? . . . You know, we're always picking on Panama, or Grenada, or, you know, Iraq - some little country. You know how many combat aircraft Iraq put in the air in our war with them? Anybody know? Zero. . . . I mean, we already had taken care of them in '91. We already beat the poo out of them. And then we stomped on them again. Hahaha!
"Well, anyway, hopefully we'll win that war. We should, God knows. I just hope we don't fight anybody our own size. Anyway, war is obsolete completely. The nations that are going to be successful in the future are the ones with the best technology, the best education, not the biggest tanks and airplanes. I mean, come on! That's old paradigm. Anyway, have a great career. And don't forget, if all else fails, there's Ted's Montana Grill."
# posted by ATN @ 11:57 AM 
