Robert Prather confronts someone calling him or herself "nobody," who insists, among other things, that the U.S. will suffer if Europe starts getting wealthier and more productive. ("Nobody" also thinks that is a good thing, as if it would be wonderful to have another populous, poor nation in the world.) Of course, "Nobody" assumes that the economic might of the U.S. is based on keeping the rest of the world down economically. What people like "nobody" don't realize is that on the contrary, we don't want the rest of the world to be poor. We want everyone to have wealthy, productive economies.
Poor countries are a drag and a burden. Time and money that should be put to productive use is diverted to keep poor nations from starving to death. Unproductive countries are a strain on the global economy. They are black holes that suck in everything and give nothing back. They aren't just speed bumps on the road to a better world, they are axle-destroying barricades.
The more a country produces, the more wealth it generates. Everyone benefits. I have almost no grasp of economic theory but that little bit is, or should be, obvious to anyone who is not on a shelf in the morgue. But these theory-steeped children, these marx-heads and foucault-fools, think that "production" means an Oppressed Worker turning a crank for twelve hours a day. They neither know nor care what it takes to get them that heated home with indoor plumbing and electric lights. They think it's a kind of magic -- and that every time someone in a highrise penthouse turns a switch, a light goes out in some African hovel. These are the people, of course, who are loudest in the anti-capitalist, anti-globalist, anti-anything-but-sitting-on-their-asses-chanting brigade. Everyone else is too busy working to waste time doing crap like that.
Posted by Andrea Harris at June 23, 2003 03:06 AMVery well said, Andrea.
This is classical liberal economics. It's too bad so many of the people we call "liberal" in the US have no clue about this. It's what makes them so difficult to talk to sometimes.
The world isn't a big pie we all share. The big question is: how do we get enough people making pie so no one's hungry?
We're getting a little better at that all the time, actually--fewer people go hungry every year. But the most hungry people are found where governments focus on redistributing pie and controlling who gets to make pie. Think there's a connection?
Posted by: Dean Esmay at June 23, 2003 at 05:42 AMA Japanese commentator once said that there are two types of nations in the world, pie makers (referring to the US, Japan, and Europe) and pie eaters (Third World, Russia at the time). The point, he said, was to make more pie eaters into pie makers.
One wonders how the Europeans seem to have lost sight of this?
Posted by: Dean at June 23, 2003 at 06:48 AMNot pie eaters really, more like pie cutters. It's the difference between those who believe individuals make their own wealth vs. those who think wealth is given or gotten from "the economy" and that it's a zero sum game. The former typically think more about encouraging development and growth, encouraging people to work, encouraging people to start new businesses, etc. The latter tend to think more about dividing up "the wealth" evenly and "fairly".
Of course, the other difference is that the former is the truth and the latter is sheer idiocy. Wealth does not simply "exist" it is always and exclusively created through work. Europe has been leaning toward the second philosophy for decades now and it has hurt them badly and is close to bringing about disaster. They have the worst of both worlds, socialist wealth redistribution and discouragement to work. Incidentally, the difference between the two ideologies is also the difference between populism (individuals create wealth) and elitism (the "establishment" hands out jobs).
Posted by: Robin Goodfellow at June 23, 2003 at 10:16 AMHow about this: pie makers (U.S., Japan), pie cutters (Europe, lecturing the rest of us on how the pie should be distributed), and pie eaters (developing nations).
Actually, if you read Hernando de Soto's The Mystery of Capital, it looks like there's a whole lot of pie out there, just no way to get it to the plate.
And that metaphor has been stretched farther than the elastic in my grandmother's underwear, so I'll stop now.
Posted by: Dave at June 23, 2003 at 10:41 AM"...if Europe starts getting wealthier and more productive." HAHAHAHA! (sorry, I had trouble getting past that point) That seems highly unlikely unless Europe turns away from Socialism.
Posted by: Lynn S at June 23, 2003 at 01:27 PMand that every time someone in a highrise penthouse turns a switch, a light goes out in some African hovel.
Andrea,
That line is priceless.
This whole discussion reminded me of one of my recent Jefferson Quote Of The Day™ entries:
"How soon the labor of men would make a paradise of the whole earth, were it not for misgovernment, and a diversion of all his energies from their proper object -- the happiness of man -- to the selfish interest of kings, nobles, and priests."
--Thomas Jefferson to Ellen W. Coolidge, 1825. ME 18:341