<< Perhaps that's what he meant, but the faultiness of the logic remains. It is very, very dangerous to suggest that wealth is evidence of moral superiority. I feel like I'm stating the obvious, but history is full of evil people who managed to amass great wealth and power temporarily. >>
Except, that's not at all what Friedman was talking about! It's not, we're morally superior because we're rich; it was closer to, we're rich because we're morally superior. He was talking about ALL our virtues, including the spiritual ones that too many of our enemies and critics are ignorant of. It's easy for people who are materially comfortable to discount the value of material comfort. And certainly material comfort is not all there is to life. But, Friedman was saying, our material comfort is a direct consequence of all our other values. The Islamic world was, centuries ago, more advanced than medieval Europe. That's not the case now, and one of the reasons is, the West is far more open to all kinds of innovations, to all kinds of freedoms. To free movement, to freedom to worship, to freedom to disagree - you don't have any of those in the countries that so excoriate us. Not all the so-called "Third World" is opposed to our values, either. You don't hear too much about anyone emigrating TO Pakistan or China, do you? And so what if they're coming here to have a better material life - what's so wrong with that? Tom Beck
