One of the most famous statements about the relationship between a company and a state is contained in a remark by Charles E Wilson ('Engine Charlie' of General Motors) when he was being questioned for his appointment as Secretary of Defence in 1953, the early days of the Eisenhower administration. He said that, "for years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors and vice versa". The clear intention of this statement was that the social policies that worked to preserve the long-term success of the nation were also those policies that worked on behalf of General Motors, at that time (but no longer) the dominant corporate firm in the United States.

One obvious virtue of the proposition is that it began with the view that sound national policies started with the nation, and then reverberated to the benefit of the firm. The obvious criticism of the remark centred about the words "vice versa", which clearly overstated the case: corporate welfare could benefit the firm and hurt the nation, for example.