WEBVTT NOTE 12. Are We a Self-Hating Commercial Society? 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.480 CHAPTER XII. ARE WE A SELF-HATING COMMERCIAL SOCIETY? 2 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:09.400 APRIL 20, 2010. 3 00:00:09.400 --> 00:00:16.280 I'm on a Sunday walk and a nice boy tries to sell me lemonade. A budding entrepreneur. 4 00:00:16.280 --> 00:00:24.960 Still I decline. So he strengthens his pitch. I'm donating the profits to stop child abuse. 5 00:00:24.960 --> 00:00:29.520 Until I decline, and more easily now that he has linked his praiseworthy commercial 6 00:00:29.520 --> 00:00:35.840 venture with a big social pathology that a 12-year-old boy can't possibly solve, unless 7 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:42.660 he's saving money to run away from home, in one short day it was about the tenth time 8 00:00:42.660 --> 00:00:48.600 that I'd been assaulted by social consciousness in the course of just going about my business. 9 00:00:48.600 --> 00:00:54.000 At the grocery store, I was assured that I would save the planet by purchasing this cereal 10 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:59.480 Social and that bag of potato chips. If I bought this instead of that coffee, I would 11 00:00:59.480 --> 00:01:05.560 help poor peasants in some far-flung place achieve social justice. Some pennies from 12 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:11.960 a sports drink were supposedly donated to cure muscular dystrophy. My coffee cup is 13 00:01:11.960 --> 00:01:19.640 so socially aware that it saves trees and thereby stabilizes the global temperature. 14 00:01:19.640 --> 00:01:24.920 If I use the following search engine, I help fund charities that are making the world a 15 00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:27.240 better place. 16 00:01:27.240 --> 00:01:33.060 I have two reactions to all this static interference on what would otherwise be the clean lines 17 00:01:33.060 --> 00:01:35.740 of commercial society. 18 00:01:35.740 --> 00:01:40.500 This proves that the traditional wrap-on capitalism is false. 19 00:01:40.500 --> 00:01:44.600 It is not only about private gain for the few. 20 00:01:44.600 --> 00:01:48.440 Business can be as enlightened as the individuals running them. 21 00:01:48.440 --> 00:01:53.280 Note that all this praiseworthy other-directedness is being accomplished within the matrix of 22 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:58.080 exchange which has wrongly been maligned as selfish. 23 00:01:58.080 --> 00:02:04.440 As we can see, there is no contradiction between doing good and doing well. 24 00:02:04.440 --> 00:02:08.940 All these innovations that merge the third sector of charity with the first sector of 25 00:02:08.940 --> 00:02:14.760 profiteering illustrate that capitalism can adapt itself to an age of broad-minded social 26 00:02:14.760 --> 00:02:16.360 concern. 27 00:02:16.360 --> 00:02:22.320 Can we all please cut the sham and go back to plain old buying and selling? 28 00:02:22.320 --> 00:02:26.040 Reaction number two is dominating my thoughts here. 29 00:02:26.040 --> 00:02:32.280 Very few of the claims of these enterprises really stand up to any serious scrutiny. 30 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:35.600 Take the coffee cup case as an example. 31 00:02:35.600 --> 00:02:40.480 If buying this cup saves trees, an even better way to save trees is not to buy coffee at 32 00:02:40.480 --> 00:02:41.720 all. 33 00:02:41.720 --> 00:02:46.280 And it's not clear that lowering the demand for paper is going to actually save trees 34 00:02:46.280 --> 00:02:52.900 at all, since a lower demand would eventually mean less reason to plant and renew the resource. 35 00:02:52.900 --> 00:02:58.460 And do we really need to save trees anyway? Does someone know the optimal number of trees 36 00:02:58.460 --> 00:03:04.820 that are supposed to be alive on the planet at one time? The case for socially just coffee 37 00:03:04.820 --> 00:03:10.280 is the one that really gets my goat. The coffee plantations that pay the highest wages and 38 00:03:10.280 --> 00:03:15.860 offer the most benefits to their workers are the largest, most established and most well-connected 39 00:03:15.860 --> 00:03:21.780 Plantations. The smaller, family-owned plantations can't afford all these things, but they are 40 00:03:21.780 --> 00:03:27.900 less likely to have access to the rating agencies and export companies. Why, precisely, are 41 00:03:27.900 --> 00:03:33.020 consumers supposed to favor the corporate big shots over the family farms and do so 42 00:03:33.020 --> 00:03:39.100 in the name of enlightened social consciousness? The whole campaign for fair trade coffee is 43 00:03:39.100 --> 00:03:45.100 is one of the most bizarre and contradictory schemes that the dumb-dumb left has ever dreamed up. 44 00:03:46.100 --> 00:03:53.100 On the one hand, it is part of the genius of capitalism that gives rise to a class of entrepreneurs 45 00:03:53.100 --> 00:03:57.100 that can use any fashionable culture shift to make a buck. 46 00:03:57.100 --> 00:04:04.100 Whether a cereal is called sugar smacks or earthen honey morsels is neither here nor there to me. 47 00:04:04.100 --> 00:04:12.100 and if some marketing genius figures that the cereal company can make more money with one name over another, good for him and the company. 48 00:04:12.100 --> 00:04:23.100 Capitalism is so darn good at what it does that it can even bamboozle muddle-headed socialists to cough up money for its products. That's wonderful. 49 00:04:23.100 --> 00:04:28.100 And yet, I'm pretty fed up with the duplicity of the whole scheme. 50 00:04:28.100 --> 00:04:32.100 Consider that kid who tried to sell me lemonade. 51 00:04:32.100 --> 00:04:39.220 It is an admirable thing to set up a lemonade stand. He used his energy and time. He has 52 00:04:39.220 --> 00:04:45.040 to keep the ice cold and provide cups and persuade people to buy. He has to choose a 53 00:04:45.040 --> 00:04:51.100 good corner of the subdivision to do this. He might have to buy his own ingredients. 54 00:04:51.100 --> 00:04:58.540 Will he make a profit? Nothing is for sure in this world. Most likely, he will not and 55 00:04:58.540 --> 00:05:05.460 And he will have to be subsidized by mom and dad. But what if he does make a profit? Wouldn't 56 00:05:05.460 --> 00:05:11.340 that be wonderful? There would be nothing at all wrong with the world in which this kid 57 00:05:11.340 --> 00:05:16.700 who gave up his Sunday to sell refreshment could put five dollars in a piggy bank as a 58 00:05:16.700 --> 00:05:24.460 result. But no, we can't have that. Instead, he has learned from the social ethos that 59 00:05:24.460 --> 00:05:29.100 And he must never, ever admit to making private gain. 60 00:05:29.100 --> 00:05:34.340 He has to manufacture some phony tale about how he will donate all proceeds to achieving 61 00:05:34.340 --> 00:05:39.820 some grand social vision of a world without child abuse. 62 00:05:39.820 --> 00:05:44.700 Isn't it enough that he gives a dozen people some Sunday refreshment and takes away a few 63 00:05:44.700 --> 00:05:45.700 bucks? 64 00:05:45.700 --> 00:05:50.860 Let's review the oldest contribution of liberal thought. 65 00:05:50.860 --> 00:05:57.020 The market society uses private gain to achieve social good via the mechanism of mutually 66 00:05:57.020 --> 00:05:59.380 beneficial exchange. 67 00:05:59.380 --> 00:06:03.080 I buy a jug of milk and the shopkeeper takes my money. 68 00:06:03.080 --> 00:06:07.900 We both say thank you to each other because we have both given each other a gift and we 69 00:06:07.900 --> 00:06:10.220 are both better off. 70 00:06:10.220 --> 00:06:15.900 The profits in the form of money, if there are any after expenses, are used to expand 71 00:06:15.900 --> 00:06:20.980 and production so that there are ever more opportunities for trade. 72 00:06:20.980 --> 00:06:25.780 Multiply these little exchanges and investments by the world's population and you have an 73 00:06:25.780 --> 00:06:30.860 ever more beautiful and fruitful garden of peace and prosperity. 74 00:06:30.860 --> 00:06:36.380 In this scheme, what is the role of giving to charitable causes? 75 00:06:36.380 --> 00:06:40.860 This is provided for by the growth of capital and wealth. 76 00:06:40.860 --> 00:06:45.580 Where there is enough left over after providing for basic survival needs, people turn their 77 00:06:45.580 --> 00:06:54.300 Their attention to widows, orphans, the sick, the symphonies, art galleries, saving salamanders, 78 00:06:54.300 --> 00:07:01.180 promoting religion, establishing quilt-weaving societies, and billions of other causes, 79 00:07:01.180 --> 00:07:05.220 all of which are evidence of rising prosperity. 80 00:07:05.220 --> 00:07:08.220 The direction of causation here is important. 81 00:07:08.220 --> 00:07:17.860 First, markets. Second, investments and exchange. Third, prosperity. Fourth, a zillion social 82 00:07:17.860 --> 00:07:24.300 causes that fall into the category of charity, social justice and the like. 83 00:07:24.300 --> 00:07:29.300 Why is it that we are so fearful of telling the truth about this step-by-step plan for 84 00:07:29.300 --> 00:07:36.860 building civilization? Why are we so anxious to blur the distinction between the stages? 85 00:07:36.860 --> 00:07:42.460 What's more, if I want to give to charity, I'm perfectly capable of doing this on my 86 00:07:42.460 --> 00:07:48.460 own, and according to my own values. I do not need business enterprises to intervene 87 00:07:48.460 --> 00:07:53.980 to help me along and show me the path to true enlightenment. When someone comes along to 88 00:07:53.980 --> 00:08:00.580 dictate to me what my values should be, I tend to push back. I just want products and 89 00:08:00.580 --> 00:08:05.140 services. I'll take care of the rest on my own dime. 90 00:08:05.140 --> 00:08:08.740 What is so complicated about this? 91 00:08:08.740 --> 00:08:14.260 During the Haitian crisis earlier this year, I could hardly move from place to place without 92 00:08:14.260 --> 00:08:17.660 someone demanding that I cough up for Haiti. 93 00:08:17.660 --> 00:08:21.520 It didn't matter if I had given $1,000 at the last stop. 94 00:08:21.520 --> 00:08:26.860 The not-so-subtle push at the next stop was for me to demonstrate that I care yet again. 95 00:08:26.860 --> 00:08:32.180 At some point during this mania, the number of people collecting for Haiti seemed to outnumber 96 00:08:32.180 --> 00:08:38.140 For the number of people giving to Haiti by two to one. It's like there is some special 97 00:08:38.140 --> 00:08:44.940 social status to the class of charity collector and we are all required to honor that. How 98 00:08:44.940 --> 00:08:53.740 to account for all this giving mania? Maybe it is all just a racket. Call it a cause racket. 99 00:08:53.740 --> 00:08:58.380 There are more bucks to be made by spreading guilt and pity than by offering goods and 100 00:08:58.380 --> 00:09:03.980 and Services, therefore, everyone gets in on the act. 101 00:09:03.980 --> 00:09:10.060 That's one theory, but it only goes so far. My own theory is that the anti-capitalist 102 00:09:10.060 --> 00:09:16.660 mentality has taken a serious toll. It hasn't yet destroyed commercial society, but it has 103 00:09:16.660 --> 00:09:21.540 caused commercial society to no longer be proud of the magic and glory embedded within 104 00:09:21.540 --> 00:09:24.460 and its structures and logic. 105 00:09:24.460 --> 00:09:26.020 Why is this? 106 00:09:26.020 --> 00:09:31.060 Because we no longer understand how it is that markets convert private interest to public 107 00:09:31.060 --> 00:09:32.460 good. 108 00:09:32.460 --> 00:09:39.140 The simplest lesson of economics proven again and again and again for 500 years is lost 109 00:09:39.140 --> 00:09:41.740 on people today. 110 00:09:41.740 --> 00:09:48.780 By the way, when that kid told me he was raising money to stop child abuse, I replied as follows, 111 00:09:48.780 --> 00:09:54.780 I hope you keep some for yourself. You have to make a living somehow. 112 00:09:54.780 --> 00:09:57.780 His mouth fell open in shock. 113 00:09:57.780 --> 00:10:05.780 I hope he remembers what I told him, and I hope his parents don't hunt me down to accuse me of child abuse.