-Caveat Lector-
Here's an interesting defense of laissez-faire capitalism. What he doesn't
mention is that the people who bought the bonds to develop the railroads,
power plants, etc. got the cash from drug trafficking, just as they do
today.
Linda
-------------
from:
http://www.newaus.com.au/wash.html
Natural resources don't make you rich. Some of the poorest nations of Africa
have cornucopias of diamonds, gold, minerals, rubber, and other resources,
but their people still fall asleep hungry each day. Education doesn't make
you rich. The Soviet Union produced armies of engineers and scientists for
decades, and the population's life expectancy at the end of the socialist
'experiment' was lower than it had been in Czarist times. Socialism
certainly doesn't make you rich, its record this century has been one of
unspeakable horror, if only the solidly unionized left in our teaching
institutions and newspaper offices would ever bother to notice.
The factors necessary are a relatively high degree of political and economic
liberty, with limited government, hard money, and low taxes. Even a limited
period of laissez-faire can raise a country's standard of living for decades
after: an unlimited period, which should have been our inheritance, would
produce wealth on an unimaginable scale. Within living memory, a high degree
of laissez-faire with no government interference transformed Hong Kong, a
tiny, hilly, rocky outcrop with no natural resources, into the most
enterprising and productive city on earth, and a great financial center.
The specter of the 'robber baron' was invoked again recently by the merger
of Mobil and Exxon, two companies which once formed part of the Standard Oil
Trust. There is even talk that Texaco may become part of the merger, and
gutter journalists are writing of the vampire-like reemergence of John D.
Rockefeller from the grave.
Well, we can only hope. Economically, this country is running on empty, and
the only people who can raise the living standards of the poorer people in
America are the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, the Morgans and the Fricks :
Hillary Clinton can't do it. She never could. Do you know that Rockefeller's
production once equaled one sixty fourth of the whole gross domestic product
of the United States? That one man could produce such an enormous surplus of
wealth is extraordinary � and how was he thanked for it by the government? I
hope all of the old Standard Oil reconsolidates: it will be justice, albeit
belated.
Without the encroaching and enfeebling statism which has exhausted this
country's inventive minds and creative spirits more and more, especially
since FDR's presidency, we would be enjoying the same growth, the same sense
of excitement and creative adventure, as the old Hong Kong. And our standard
of living would, today, be at a height beyond conceiving, because we already
had the industrial infrastructure and investment capital, while HK started
from next to nothing after World War II. And yet, as the Microsoft antitrust
case shows, the American government is still at it; still trying to punish
the successful for the heinous crime of success.
To clearly state the fact once more: the difference between you and a
starving beggar in the streets of Delhi is, more than anything else, a
difference created by the robber barons � not because they made the beggar
poor, he was always poor, and pretty much represents Man's living state
before the industrial revolution. But their great industry did make you
rich. And I hope you are thankful.
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