Dear James, Daniel and Emily,
I don't know how many people are aware of this bizarre article published yesterday. It follows an odd train of logic. And tries to hammer home some points that on some level make sense but not much. So here's my take on what I have been able to figure out about the Conservative/liberatarian logic regarding the economy and politics.
1. Nothing is free, no matter what, in any reasonable marketplace people must charge for what they provide, and no one should expect to get something for free. Charity is bad business.
2. Government should not give away anything, or help people. (Unless you are a large corporation like a bank or oil company or defense contractor in which case the government should never regulate you, but if you are collapsing government shoudl immediately leap to give you aid)
I tried to come up with a number of other thoughts here, but kept getting interrupted, and lost my train of thought. Suffice to say I think the person who wrote this column totally and completely missed the point. And it is that kind of crass seflishness that in some ways has led to the problems our economy is facing. The idea that every individual and corporation will not hurt other people or businesses out of pure enlightened self interest has been proven time and again to be wrong. And that if everyone is working in their own interest it will all work out is wrong.
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