Billionaire Tells B-Students To Improve Capitalist System

Billionaire H. Ross Perot said yesterday that Americans should keep faith in the capitalist system and "offer leadership in all walks of life to try to improve it."

"The country only works if citizens participate in it." Perot told an audience at the Business School yesterday. "Today most Americans don't participate or think about anything--that's why the country is in such a mess."

Perot said Americans should "absorb our disappointment and pessimism and work together to solve the problems facing us."

Perot, referring to the current energy shortages, said rich and poor Americans should "link hands" and solve the problem together. "It is crucial that we think in terms of 'we' and not 'me' in order to get through this winter." Perot said.

Perot's firm, the Electronic Data Processing Corp., specializes in setting up computer systems for government health and welfare agencies. He has been accused by various news media of using his influence to gain government contracts.

Perot told the audience that working class citizens should invest in securities so that there will be enough capital to create jobs for all Americans.

"Don't spend your life in the grandstands." Perot said. "The world belongs to the man in the field--that's where your teeth get loosened and you get skinned.