He also said that the richest percent of America's population has financial wealth equal to that of the bottom 95 percent.
"A strong democracy doesn't tolerate poverty in an affluent society," he said. "It doesn't tolerate everything for sale."
Nader bemoaned what he considers the destruction of America's bright minds by poor education and overspecialization.
"They keep you so busy, you don't even have time to think," he told MIT students.
Nader, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1958, poked fun at the school.
"The word 'justice' was almost never used," he said.
It wasn't until the student protests of the '60s and '70s that the Law School curriculum changed to include topics like corporate crime and civil rights, Nader said. It didn't change on its own.
"It was the fires in cities like Detroit and Newark," he said.
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