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Seeking Green Party presidential nomination, Nader '55 returns to old stomping ground with harsh words for corporate America

Presidential hopeful Ralph Nader '55, who is seeking the Green Party nomination, condemned the growth of corporate influence in America yesterday, addressing a near-capacity crowd in McCosh 50.

In a brief pre-speech question and answer session, Nader said the dominance of corporate power in America could potentially motivate voters to support a third party, as slavery did for the Republican party in the 19th century.

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"The issue is corporate power. There's all kinds of double standards between how human beings are treated and how corporations are treated," Nader said.

"Look at Princeton. Look at the corporate influence here. It gets so ingrained that you don't even notice," he said. "Education is corporatized."

Nader advised University students to call for an open meeting with the University Board of Trustees and demand that agreements the administration makes with corporations be announced on the University Website.

In an interview following the speech, Nader reflected on the environmental lessons he learned as an undergraduate — when he first encountered the difficulty of confronting a large institution like a corporation.

"They would hose the trees down with DDT from McCosh to Holder. It killed lots of birds. They never made the connection. They didn't think it was related," he said. "It taught me that even though Princeton may have the best scientists in the world, if they're not concerned about the problem, they're not going to do anything."

During his speech, Nader said corporate America tends to mislead consumers into having low expectations for their quality of life. Instead of working to change conditions, people just adapt to their surroundings, he said.

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Nader cited the lack of automobile safety regulations in the early 1960s — a problem he campaigned to remedy — as an example of this consumer ignorance.

In addition to the dominance of corporate influence, Nader said the well-being of the U.S. economy has been misinterpreted, noting that despite the nation's prosperity, there is a growing polarization of income distribution. "The top one percent of the wealthy have a wealth equal to the bottom 95 percent," he said. "This is not in the Third World. This is right here."

"There are two cultures, a corporate culture and a civic culture," he said. "The corporations start [influencing people] at an early age. If we continue this trajectory, corporations will be raising kids."

"The impact of corporate culture is insidious. It makes us accept it without even thinking about it," he added.

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During the interview, Nader also referred to his presidential candidacy, noting that young people are instrumental in political campaigning. "Any political movement is driven by people in their 20s more than historians would like to report," he said.

"Nothing would make me more gratified than to have Princeton students involved with the campaign," he added.