(From John Stossel):
On my Fox Business show this week (Thursday at 8pm & Midnight ET): Myths, lies and downright stupidity. In 40 years of reporting, I’ve learned that much of what people believe, and what the media reports, is myth. “Capitalism is cruel” and “business is evil” are myths popularized by the MSM and Hollywood. But, as radio host Michael Medved explains, business is more fair and more reliable than government. Where do you get better service, he asks, Starbucks or at the DMV?
In my syndicated column this week, I look at a range of business myths that Medved writes about:
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."
... 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.
Full column here.
http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2010/04/22/this-weeks-show-myths-lies-downright-stupidity/
Read more: http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2010/04/22/this-weeks-show-myths-lies-downright-stupidity/#ixzz0mDo68RV5
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