ON MAY DAY CELEBRATE CAPITALISM

jimmyf · 05-01-2003

ON MAY DAY CELEBRATE CAPITALISM
Global capitalism is the best means of creating worldwide freedom and wealth.

By Edwin A. Locke

May Day will once again be celebrated by left-wing and environmentalist protestors united by a single emotion: a virulent hatred of capitalism, especially global capitalism. Why the hatred?

The advantage of a global economy based on free trade and capitalism is so obvious and so enormous that it is difficult to conceive of anyone opposing it. The benefit is based on the law of comparative advantage: every country becomes more prosperous the more it invests in producing and exporting what it does best (in terms of quality, cost, uniqueness, etc.), and importing goods and services that other countries can produce
more efficiently. For example, let us say that Nigerian companies can produce T-shirts for $1 a piece whereas U.S. companies can only produce them for $5 a piece. Under free trade, Americans will buy their T-shirts from Nigeria. This division of labor benefits people in both countries. Nigerians will have more money to buy food, clothing and housing. Americans will spend less on T-shirts and have more money to buy cell phones and SUVs, and the investment capital formerly spent on T-shirts will be put to more productive uses, say in the area of technology or drug research. Multiply this by millions of products and hundreds of countries and over time the benefits run into the trillions of dollars.

How, then, do we reconcile the incredible benefits of global capitalism with the anti-globalization movement? The protestors make three claims repeatedly. First, they argue that multinational corporations are becoming too powerful and threaten the sovereignty of smaller nations. This is absurd on the face of it. Governments have the power of physical coercion (the gun); corporations do not; they have only the dollar--they function through voluntary trade.

Second, anti-globalists claim that multinational companies exploit
workers in poor countries by paying lower wages than they would pay in their home countries. Well, what is the alternative? It is: no wages! The comparative advantage of poorer countries is precisely that their wages are low, thus reducing the costs of production. If multinational corporations had to pay the same wages as in their home countries, they would not bother to invest in poorer countries at all and millions of people would lose their livelihoods.

Third, it is claimed that multinational corporations destroy the
environments of smaller, poorer countries. Note that if 19th-century America had been subjected to the environmental legislation that now pervades most Western countries, we ourselves would still be a third-world country. Most of the industries that made the United States a world economic power--the steel, automobile, chemicals and electrical industries--would never have been able to develop. By what right do we deprive poor, destitute people in other countries from trying to create
prosperity in the same way that we did, which is the only way possible?

All of these objections to global capitalism are just rationalizations. The giveaway, and the clue to the real motive of today's left and their hangers-on, is that all their protests are *against*--they are anti-capitalism, anti-free trade, anti-using the environment for man's benefit--but they are not *for* anything. In the first third of the 20th century, most leftists were idealists--they stood for and fought for an imagined, industrialized utopia--Communism (or Socialism). The left's
vision was man as a selfless slave of the state, and the state as the omniscient manager of the economy. However, instead of prosperity, happiness and freedom, Communism and Socialism produced nothing but poverty, misery and terror (witness Soviet Russia, North Korea and Cuba, among others). Their system had to fail, because it was based on a lie. You cannot create freedom and happiness by destroying individual rights; and you cannot create prosperity by negating the mind and evading the
laws of economics.

Furious over the fact that their envisioned utopia has collapsed in
ruins, the leftists now seek only destruction. They want to annihilate the system that has produced the very prosperity, happiness and freedom that their system could not produce. That system is capitalism, the system of true social justice where people are free to produce and keep what they earn.

The fact that free trade is now becoming truly global is one of the most important achievements in the history of mankind. If, in the end, it wins out over statism, global capitalism will bring about the greatest degree of prosperity and the greatest period of peaceful cooperation in world history.

We should scornfully ignore the nihilist protestors--they have nothing positive to offer. We should not only allow global capitalism; we should welcome it and foster it in every way possible. It is time to rephrase Karl Marx: Workers of the world unite for global capitalism; you have nothing to lose but your poverty.
_______________________________________________
Edwin A. Locke, a Professor Emeritus of management at the University of Maryland at College Park, is a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead.

Winetalk.com · 05-01-2003

"Capitalists and people with common sense - unite!"
;-)))

Almighty Colin · 05-01-2003

Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't some of the people most in favor of global capitalism "left-wingers". I mean, isn't PD a "global capitalist" very much in favor of free trade who thinks there should be less tariffs, etc?

Almighty Colin · 05-01-2003

.. and I don't mean the left-wingers in Russia.

Torone · 05-01-2003

Jimmyf,
I couldn't have said it better!

Colin,
Please point out to me where Pd said he was against things like tariffs. Like all Leftists, he has never met a tax of any kind he didn't love.

Someone please explain to me why people who 'made it' on their own so frequently espouse the idea of taking other people's money and giving it to someone else, hoping to help them; instead of simply setting up an organisation to do so far more efficiently using their own money.

Think. I'm sure that you can come up with names like Opra Winfrey, Bill Gates, The Kennedys, etc. who are backing anything Socialist. I can think of a few right here on this board...

05-01-2003	#1
jimmyf Members Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: California Posts: 249	ON MAY DAY CELEBRATE CAPITALISM Global capitalism is the best means of creating worldwide freedom and wealth. By Edwin A. Locke May Day will once again be celebrated by left-wing and environmentalist protestors united by a single emotion: a virulent hatred of capitalism, especially global capitalism. Why the hatred? The advantage of a global economy based on free trade and capitalism is so obvious and so enormous that it is difficult to conceive of anyone opposing it. The benefit is based on the law of comparative advantage: every country becomes more prosperous the more it invests in producing and exporting what it does best (in terms of quality, cost, uniqueness, etc.), and importing goods and services that other countries can produce more efficiently. For example, let us say that Nigerian companies can produce T-shirts for $1 a piece whereas U.S. companies can only produce them for $5 a piece. Under free trade, Americans will buy their T-shirts from Nigeria. This division of labor benefits people in both countries. Nigerians will have more money to buy food, clothing and housing. Americans will spend less on T-shirts and have more money to buy cell phones and SUVs, and the investment capital formerly spent on T-shirts will be put to more productive uses, say in the area of technology or drug research. Multiply this by millions of products and hundreds of countries and over time the benefits run into the trillions of dollars. How, then, do we reconcile the incredible benefits of global capitalism with the anti-globalization movement? The protestors make three claims repeatedly. First, they argue that multinational corporations are becoming too powerful and threaten the sovereignty of smaller nations. This is absurd on the face of it. Governments have the power of physical coercion (the gun); corporations do not; they have only the dollar--they function through voluntary trade. Second, anti-globalists claim that multinational companies exploit workers in poor countries by paying lower wages than they would pay in their home countries. Well, what is the alternative? It is: no wages! The comparative advantage of poorer countries is precisely that their wages are low, thus reducing the costs of production. If multinational corporations had to pay the same wages as in their home countries, they would not bother to invest in poorer countries at all and millions of people would lose their livelihoods. Third, it is claimed that multinational corporations destroy the environments of smaller, poorer countries. Note that if 19th-century America had been subjected to the environmental legislation that now pervades most Western countries, we ourselves would still be a third-world country. Most of the industries that made the United States a world economic power--the steel, automobile, chemicals and electrical industries--would never have been able to develop. By what right do we deprive poor, destitute people in other countries from trying to create prosperity in the same way that we did, which is the only way possible? All of these objections to global capitalism are just rationalizations. The giveaway, and the clue to the real motive of today's left and their hangers-on, is that all their protests are against--they are anti-capitalism, anti-free trade, anti-using the environment for man's benefit--but they are not for anything. In the first third of the 20th century, most leftists were idealists--they stood for and fought for an imagined, industrialized utopia--Communism (or Socialism). The left's vision was man as a selfless slave of the state, and the state as the omniscient manager of the economy. However, instead of prosperity, happiness and freedom, Communism and Socialism produced nothing but poverty, misery and terror (witness Soviet Russia, North Korea and Cuba, among others). Their system had to fail, because it was based on a lie. You cannot create freedom and happiness by destroying individual rights; and you cannot create prosperity by negating the mind and evading the laws of economics. Furious over the fact that their envisioned utopia has collapsed in ruins, the leftists now seek only destruction. They want to annihilate the system that has produced the very prosperity, happiness and freedom that their system could not produce. That system is capitalism, the system of true social justice where people are free to produce and keep what they earn. The fact that free trade is now becoming truly global is one of the most important achievements in the history of mankind. If, in the end, it wins out over statism, global capitalism will bring about the greatest degree of prosperity and the greatest period of peaceful cooperation in world history. We should scornfully ignore the nihilist protestors--they have nothing positive to offer. We should not only allow global capitalism; we should welcome it and foster it in every way possible. It is time to rephrase Karl Marx: Workers of the world unite for global capitalism; you have nothing to lose but your poverty. _______________________________________________ Edwin A. Locke, a Professor Emeritus of management at the University of Maryland at College Park, is a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute in Irvine, Calif. The Institute promotes Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. __________________ Fast-Size for you Pencil dick Webmasters will work for your surfers also AdRiches Casino PAYS Webmasters daily

05-01-2003	#2
Winetalk.com Prostate Examiner I quoff fine wine at corkd.com Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: good 'ole USA Posts: 21,018	"Capitalists and people with common sense - unite!" ;-))) __________________ why dogs sniff each other butts?

05-01-2003	#3
Almighty Colin Members Want to see your own Advertising Here! Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 8,059	Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't some of the people most in favor of global capitalism "left-wingers". I mean, isn't PD a "global capitalist" very much in favor of free trade who thinks there should be less tariffs, etc? __________________ Almighty Content. Your one stop for live content. Secret Friends, LATINA Secret Friends , My Cam Friends

05-01-2003	#4
Almighty Colin Members Want to see your own Advertising Here! Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 8,059	.. and I don't mean the left-wingers in Russia. __________________ Almighty Content. Your one stop for live content. Secret Friends, LATINA Secret Friends , My Cam Friends

05-01-2003	#5
Torone Members Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 1,137	Jimmyf, I couldn't have said it better! Colin, Please point out to me where Pd said he was against things like tariffs. Like all Leftists, he has never met a tax of any kind he didn't love. Someone please explain to me why people who 'made it' on their own so frequently espouse the idea of taking other people's money and giving it to someone else, hoping to help them; instead of simply setting up an organisation to do so far more efficiently using their own money. Think. I'm sure that you can come up with names like Opra Winfrey, Bill Gates, The Kennedys, etc. who are backing anything Socialist. I can think of a few right here on this board... __________________ Why me? Why always me?