I wonder if Mr. Hoenig ever got out of his high-rise apartments and his hedge fund deals enough to see the results of his "productive achievements".
Personally, I'd rather be a socialist dog.
Anthony
--
On Mon, 18 Nov 2002 21:05:39
Doug Henwood wrote:
>At 8:58 PM -0500 11/18/02, Yahoo! Alerts - News wrote:
>
>>Hey, Socialists! In Your Ear! (SmartMoney.com)
>>Enough business bashing. I'm a capitalist pig -- and proud of it.
>>For the full story, go to:
>>http://rd.yahoo.com/alerts/email/news/*http://biz.yahoo.com/smart/021118/20021111trad_1.html
>
>SmartMoney.com
>Hey, Socialists! In Your Ear!
>Monday November 18, 2:20 pm ET
>By Jonathan Hoenig
>
>This article was originally published on SmartMoney Select on 11/11/02.
>
>THE CIRCUS CAME to Chicago last week - not Ringling Brothers, but a
>colorful band of anticapitalist protesters armed with megaphones,
>placards and enough eco-unfriendly pamphlets to papier-mache the
>Sears Tower.
>
>Protesting capitalism, mostly outside meetings by corporate leaders
>or the WTO, is ultra-chic among the alternative crowd these days.
>Last week, their target was the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue, an
>annual meeting of corporate and government officials from the U.S.
>and Europe working to ease trade restrictions. The event just
>happened to be held in my hometown.
>
>Although I enthusiastically support the right of peaceful assembly,
>I'm of the mind that capitalism shouldn't be protested, but rather
>celebrated. While "greedy executives" always make an easy target for
>disaffected youth, the reality is that nothing better exemplifies our
>national spirit than American business - the thousands of
>corporations big and small that benefit us all.
>
>First off, let's not forget just how "big business" gets so big. As
>Ayn Rand writes in her book "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal," "The
>sole means by which a government can grow big is physical force; the
>sole means by which a business can grow big, in a free economy, is
>productive achievement."
>
>Magnificent companies like McDonald's (NYSE:MCD - News) or Microsoft
>(NASDAQ:MSFT - News) don't pop out of thin air. They aren't the
>result of a governmental bureaucracy like Amtrak or of natural
>phenomena like the Northern Lights. They've been built by spirited
>entrepreneurs and the hard - but voluntary - work of millions of
>individuals, all of whom have been paid for their services. Indeed,
>it's easy to forget that the oft-cited "working man" the protesters
>believe has been so wronged by capitalism isn't enslaved - he's
>employed. One of the many positives that business, big and small, has
>the capacity to produce is jobs. Millions and millions of them.
>
>The spirit of capitalism is to vote with one's pocketbook. It's
>ironic, then, how so many young, "oppressed" people decry capitalism
>while simultaneously embracing its benefits, buying everything from
>CDs to cell phones with ravenous hunger. (Epic Records greatly
>appreciates their purchases of Rage Against the Machine albums.)
>These people may believe that greedy CEOs are the only people to
>benefit from capitalism, but the truth is that free-market
>competition always helps consumers first and capitalists second.
>There isn't a good or service that hasn't been improved or made
>cheaper by big business and free enterprise.
>
>One of the best examples is the energy industry, where "big oil" is a
>perennial scapegoat for everything from pollution to price gouging.
>Yet the statistics present quite a different picture. In 1913,
>gasoline cost 27 cents a gallon, and a 12-gallon fill-up cost 30% of
>the average American's weekly earnings, according to an article in
>the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Even if the price had merely kept pace
>with inflation, the same gallon of gas would cost around $21 today.
>Of course, gas is much cheaper than that - and today's formulas are
>the cleanest and most fuel efficient in history.
>
>And while it's now common knowledge that the airline business has
>been unprofitable for years, that hasn't stopped millions of
>Americans from taking advantage of the cheapest airfares ever. The
>same goes for information technology, where a top-of-the-line
>notebook computer costs less than my Mac Plus did a dozen or so years
>ago.
>
>In the wake of the midterm elections, let's not forget that while
>political power is achieved by appeasing special interests, economic
>power is gotten only through peaceful, mutually beneficial exchange.
>After Enron and WorldCom, it became easy to slander capitalism as the
>problem with society. I don't think business is what's wrong with
>America, but what's right with it.
>
>Jonathan Hoenig is portfolio manager at Capitalistpig Asset
>Management, a Chicago-based hedge fund.
>
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