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Econ 101
 Scott Bushee
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Why must social activists always act like small children? I can't figure them out. Their whole methodology seems to rely on holding their breath until they turn blue, and then expecting someone to care. Look at what they did at Wal-Mart this weekend.
They crossed their collective arms, stamped their feet, assumed a pouty expression, and yelled at the top of their lungs, "Mooooommmy, Wal-Mart is being mean!"
Seriously. The single most obvious fact about the activists is that they will do anything possible to help people except the only thing that would actually work, studying economics.
For one thing, they seem to think that anything that sounds like economic growth is bad. Here is a simple question: How can they 'redistribute' that which hasn't been made? Say's Law, (or just common sense) tells us that it is impossible.
Here is another simple question. If free-markets are so bad and they impoverish people, why are capitalist countries so much richer than non-capitalist countries? Why is America, the freest country, also the richest? Why was West Germany richer than East Germany? South Korea richer than North? The village idiot can see that if every capitalist country is rich, and every non-capitalist country is poor, then it is obviously lack of capitalism that makes people poor, not capitalism.
Of course, they would now respond that it is our trading with them that has made them poor. Allow another obvious question. Seeing how true free trade is a relatively new phenomenon (British Imperialism was actually mercantilism, which is something capitalists since Adam Smith have opposed) and the poverty stricken countries have always been poor, how is it that free trade made them poor? Do the corporations have time machines?
Here is the deal. The only way to alleviate poverty is to have economic growth. The only way to have growth is to have entities (businesses) which grow. To have a strong economy, we must have strong economic units. To say otherwise is analogous to saying you want SCSU to have a good hockey team, but you don't want any good hockey players. It is absurd.
This is why businesses such as GM, Wal-Mart, and Microsoft, rather than being the bastions of evil that they are made out to be, are actually good for society.
Scott Bushee can be reached at: [email protected]
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