The University of Chicago GSB Management Conference for 2005 was held on April 22. Below is the text of an e-mail sent by me, shortly before the event, to a number of  conference participants.
	"As the University of Chicago GSB Management Conference is booked out, perhaps someone at that conference would like to convey to Mr. Jack Welch a few questions that I have:       "1. Was it really proper for the Chairman of the Federal Reserve to marry an employee of NBC News? In 1982 Alan Greenspan plagiarized my writing on Social Security demographics, thus scoring enough political points to become Fed Chairman. Does Mr. Welch think it proper for NBC News to have kept that fact from the public? And does that explain why it is now, in 2005, that Greenspan has proved incapable of making any sort of creative or original comments regarding the new Social Security crisis that looms?       "2. GE of course has intellectual property rights which must be defended by any means necessary, fair or foul. Do small business people, like me, have intellectual property rights?      "3. Does Mr. Welch think it proper to essentially enslave a graduate of a good university, such of the University of Chicago, so that GE can make a profit? Should I admire and respect Mr. Welch after I have been kept a virtual prisoner (in more than one sense of the word "virtual") in my own apartments for a period of twenty years? How many others are receiving the same sort of treatment?        "4. Should there be some limits on the use of faked schizophrenia (made possible through the marvels of GE electronics) for the purpose of controlling, exploiting, or getting rid of people (like me) who might pose a problem for big corporations (like his)?        "5. While Winning has a nice ring to it, doesn't Mr. Welch think Welching would have been a more apt title for his recent book? . . . ."        None of those receiving my e-mail sent a reply. However I was pleased to have made the gesture.      The University of Chicago was founded by John D. Rockefeller. But it has two traditions which may not be entirely compatible. Those might be referred to as the Rockefeller tradition and the Veblen tradition. The first is a capitalist tradtion and the second is critical of capitalism. I myself probably have a little of both traditions in my system.      As head of GE, Mr. Welch was also the head of NBC. To read more about my experiences with that network, return to the home page and click on "NBC" in the index. HOME