ustxtxb_obs_1984_12_14_50_00064-00000_000.pdf

AILEXECUTIVE OFFICES: P.O. BOX 208, WACO, TEXAS 78703, 817-772-3050 American Income Life Insurance Company A Public Service Message from the American Income Life Insurance Co.Waco, TexasBernard Rapoport, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer Bernard Rapoport: An Interview This interview by the Waco Tribune-Herald was published in the July 2, 1984 edition of that newspaper, and is reprinted with permission. 0. For the person in Waco who may not know, could you describe the range of business of American Income Life Insurance Company, the firm you founded. A. We operate in every state except New York and in Washington, D.C., and in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. We have in excess of $350 million in assets. We will take in $120 million to $125 million this year. We have an agency force of almost 900 full-time representatives. The uniqueness of our company is we recognized that if we wanted to be successful we had to go into a marketing area that major companies didn’t pursue. Based on my connection with the labor movement, I selected that market. We started the company in March of 1951 with $25,000, and we had virtually no external financing, maybe a million and a half or two million dollars, but essentially the whole $350 million has been internally generated through the sales that we have made. 0. Might people in national Democratic headquarters be more aware of your impact in politics than the average Waco citizen? A. I think that’s very true. I’ve helped in the fund raising of 75 percent of the Democratic senators. I’ve established a relationship with them that is predicated on mutual interest in the sense that my business is not regulated by the federal government so there really isn’t anything that I ever would ask them for on a personal basis. I talk to them about foreign affairs. I’m interested in decent legislation to help those who don’t have access to the economic system. I’m interested in providing health care for senior citizens. I’m over 65 myself. Q. A recent wire story described you as one of the highrollers in Democratic national politics when it comes to personal contributions. A. Well, that’s an understatement. This is really an ancient story, but when McCarthy was running for president in ’68 I gave him $25,000. In those days they didn’t have the limit that they have now. We were in New York that day and that I had to tell her we couldn’t afford it. Sometimes politics gets you in trouble, but she got the coat. Q. You are described as a liberal yet you headquarter in Waco, which seems to be a bastion for conservatism. Why is that? A. I think that most of the people that describe themselves as conservatives are not thinking about what they are saying. I find that my ideas and their ideas are very similar. I’m the greatest exponent of the capitalistic system in the world. I’m a guy that came from the wrong side of the tracks. My mother and father couldn’t speak English. I know what the capitalistic system does. I want to preserve it. Most of the people who call themselves conservatives are people wanting special privileges to protect their business regardless of what it does to the rest of our system, and that’s what I object to. If that’s being liberal then I’m a raving liberal. I want a system that provides access for everybody. I don’t care what color they are, what their religion is, what they believe. You take what’s happening in our society today with the big banks. If you are Continental Illinois and you are about to go broke the government comes in and saves you. We own a couple of little banks and I’ll guarantee you if one of them was about to go under the government wouldn’t do one thing for them. I don’t think the government ought to do anything to help any business. I think they ought to stay out of their way. Now is that liberal or conservative? BERNARD RAPOPORT Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer 64 DECEMBER 14, 1984