Perchoutofwater Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 Myths About Capitalismby John Stossel 04/21/2010 I won 19 Emmy Awards by reporting a myth: that business constantly rips us off -- that capitalism is mostly cruel and unfair. I know that's a myth now. So I was glad to see the publication of "The 5 Big Lies About American Business" by Michael Medved. "You can only make a profit in this country by giving people a product or a service that they want," Medved recently told me. "It's the golden rule in action." Medved used to write about the movies, so he's familiar with the businessman as villain. I'll play a clip from the movie "Syriana," in which an oil tycoon makes this ridiculous speech: "Corruption keeps us safe and warm. Corruption is why you and I are prancing around in here instead of fighting over scraps of meat out in the street." "What's interesting," Medved commented, "is that in the old days, Hollywood would have businesspeople who were very positive: George Bailey, the Jimmy Stewart character, is a banker in 'It's a Wonderful Life.'" No longer. Today's movie capitalists are criminals or playboys. Apparently, Hollywood writers think it's plausible that CEOs have lots of time to sip cocktails and chase women. "In school, we all studied a book called "The Theory of the Leisure Class," which ... indicted the leisure class and these people who were out there exploiting other people and really had nothing to do except sit on their yachts and go to their swimming pools and their vacations." In real life, that's nonsense. "The higher up on the income scale you go, the less leisure time you have. You make money in this country by working hard." Medved's second myth is that when the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. This is the old zero-sum fallacy, which ignores that when two people engage in free exchange, both gain -- or they wouldn't have traded. It's what I call the double thank-you phenomenon. I understand why politicians and lawyers believe it: It's true in their world. But it's not true in business. "If you believe that when the rich get richer, the poor get poorer, then you believe that creating wealth causes poverty, and you're an idiot," said Medved. "One of the things that I hate is this term 'obscene profits.' There are no obscene profits ... . (The current economic downturn shows) "that when the rich get poorer ... everybody gets poorer." Myth No. 3: Government is more fair and reliable than business. "Remember the last time you went into Starbucks, and then remember the last time you went into the DMV to get your license," Medved said. "Where did you get better treated? And it's not because the barista is some kind of idealist or humanitarian. She wants a tip. She wants you to come back to the Starbucks ... ." But the left doesn't get it. "This is the suspicion of the profit motive -- the idea that if somebody is selflessly serving me, they're going to treat me better than somebody who wants to make a buck," Medved said. But "(i)f you think about it in your own life, if somebody is benefiting from his interaction with you ... it's a far more reliable kind of interaction than someone who comes and says I'm in this only for you." Myth No. 4: The current downturn means the death of capitalism. "Capitalism is alive and well," Medved said. I'm also bugged when people argue that today's problems prove that capitalism "failed." What failed? We had a correction. A bubble popped. But from 1982 to now, the Dow rose from 800 to 11,000. Had it happened without the bubble, we'd say this is one of the great boom periods. Medved added: "This is one of the biggest lies -- the idea that because of capitalism, we're all suffering. ... Poor people in America today, people who are officially in poverty, have a higher standard of living in terms of medical standards, in terms of the chances of going to college, in terms of the way people live, than middle-class people did 30 years ago. It's an extraordinary achievement of technology and of the profit sector." Like the saying goes if you are not a liberal at 20 you have no heart, if you are not a conservative by 40 your have no brain. It is nice to see John had grown up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SayItAintSoJoe Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 Like the saying goes if you are not a liberal at 20 you have no heart, if you are not a conservative by 40 your have no brain. It is nice to see John had grown up Wasn't he the dude that got bitch slapped by a wrestler years ago? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perchoutofwater Posted April 22, 2010 Author Share Posted April 22, 2010 (edited) What do you have if you are nearly 40 years old and still a trust fund baby? You begin to learn to ignore envious piss ants. I'm still not all that good at it as evident by this post. I'm also a few years shy of 40, so I'll continue to hang around you so I can perfect the art. Edited April 22, 2010 by Perchoutofwater Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmarc117 Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 What do you have if you are nearly 40 years old and still a trust fund baby? good times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duchess Jack Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 there's a wee bit of difference between good ol' George Baily and the jack hole executives at the head of mega banks. remember - It's a Wonderful Life also featured Mr. Potter - who is far closer to the CEOs that give capitolism a bad name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KICK A$$ BLASTER Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 Wasn't he the dude that got bitch slapped by a wrestler years ago? I think it is...He made the comment that wrestling was somehow fake and wrestler showed him how fake it was.....Right up side his head... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Sacrebleu Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 meh> That's pretty light weight stuff, full of strawmen and bad logic> I don't know who stossel is, but he is not really much of a debater, that's for sure> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SheikYerbuti Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 In. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 good times Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cre8tiff Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 John Stossel I ALMOST stopped reading right there. I won 19 Emmy Awards I DID stop there. Starting an article by blowing your own horn.... doesn't speak well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 I DID stop there. Starting an article by blowing your own horn.... doesn't speak well. Ahhhh, the Good Morning America guy who is on Fox News now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tosberg34 Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 I ALMOST stopped reading right there. I DID stop there. Starting an article by blowing your own horn.... doesn't speak well. Wait...you can read? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushwacked Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 Wait...you can read? BURN! What a BURN! You got him GOOD! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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