Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 49
exchange and abundant opportunity of cooperation for countries that on their own
volition want to adopt all or parts of our system. Such actions would be, in my view,
quite within the constitutional duties of the federal government of providing for our
external defense and fostering trade.
Considering that there are limits to our own growth, albeit still unknown to us, the idea of
helping people establish a “concept America” in their own countries would abate the
pressure to immigrate to America. At a time when our open spaces, cities, suburbs and
natural resources are under heavy stress due to exploding wealth and expanding
population, it is becoming ever more difficult to strike a harmonious balance between
nature and mankind. Growth is good for business but as in health, unchecked
cancerous growth will kill the host. I submit that it is time to focus on franchising, free of
charge, the “concept America” and making the rest of the world our trading partners.
Referring to the future of the world after the impending demise of the Soviet Empire,
then Texas Senator Phil Gramm encapsulated a lot of wisdom when he once told me,
“trade, not war”. I think one of America’s greatest exports to those willingly wanting to
import it should be the “concept America.” Then dreamers will be able to pursue their
dreams wherever they have them, without having to move to America. A new,
worldwide tsunami of prosperity based on dreams-come-true everywhere would bring
incalculable returns to such a policy.
A very significant observation about the essence of America is gleaned from the peace
pacts at the end of World War II. Historically in armed conflicts among kings, tribes or
nations, the victors extracted either loot, slaves or heavy reparations from the
vanquished. This was the “natural” result of war and it was expected. Humanity was
used to it. In Roman times, the looting, raping, sacking, burning, razing and
enslavement of the losers was more feared than the war itself. Over and over again, this
has been an effective but savage way to discourage opposition.
The world’s behavior did not improve very much over the next 2,000 years. Two
examples, one thousand years apart, prove this point. Soldiers of Christ, in the name of
Christ, committed most barbarous acts during the Crusades. This unprovoked invasion,
allegedly to evict the Arab infidels from their homes near the Holy Land, in actuality was
mounted to take their wealth and also to open new trade routes with the Orient, even to
sack and plunder the Christian city of Byzantium (Constantinople). This was more than
a century of warfare dedicated to mobilizing the European economy and reorganizing its
nations by conquering the wealth of the Levant.
The second example I want to highlight occurred this century. After World War I ended
with the Peace of Versailles, the reparations imposed on Germany by the European
victors were so onerous as to create one of the worst economic debacles in modern
history. The hyperinflation and financial collapse that followed in Germany from exacting
such burdensome payments created the conditions for the rise of Adolph Hitler and the
Autobiography.doc 49 of 239