I have gotten so tired of people constantly ragging on businesspeople and claiming that they will save the world through their volunteering, traveling, hippy living or other generally jobless activities. ‚ Bullshit. ‚ Volunteering is masturbation for the ego. ‚ I know hippies who care about the environment and only eat organic foods… only to drive several hours back and forth from home twice a week.
Businessmen on the other hand openly state that their primary motivation is selfish: They want to make money. ‚ Many of them also want to help the world in some way by providing a quality product or service, but that is a secondary benefit.
So why do I say that businessmen are the best men?
Almost everything that makes your life good comes either directly or indirectly from people in business. ‚ The car that swiftly and reliably takes you hundreds of miles to visit your family in another state was designed, manufactured and sold by businesspeople. ‚ The healthy/tasty/organic/fast/bulk food that you eat every day for very low prices came from businessmen. ‚ The job that enables you to take care of your family, obtain medical care and a plethora of other products and services all came from entrepreneurs. ‚
Most products and services in America are provided by businesspeople. ‚ Think about it: you live like a king would have lived less than a hundred years ago even though you are probably just middle class today. ‚ You actually have access to more & better products, services and information than even the wealthiest and most powerful individuals did. ‚ You have high quality medical care (not witch doctors & leaches), tasty food from around the globe (“what’s a banana?”), rapid travel worldwide (airplanes, cars, trains, fast ships), the internet, etc.
Businesspeople are even partially responsible for the freedom that we enjoy. ‚ It is in a businessperson’s best interests to maintain free trade, free speech and small government because it enables them to make more money easier.
People who disdain or fear businessmen generally don’t understand them or how the world works. ‚ These are the people who go do UN aid work in Somalia… basically helplessly trying to treat symptoms while ignoring the disease. ‚ In many of these countries mired in poverty, simply establishing a system with free trade and free speech protections will lead to most of their other problems getting resolved by businesspeople. ‚
Americans should be desperately afraid of what is happening now in our country: businesspeople are being persecuted and the government is destroying their entire class. ‚ Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama are eliminating free trade by bailing out companies that should fail and vastly expanding government power. ‚ If you think working for your boss under free enterprise is bad, wait till your boss is Big Brother and it is impossible to leave your job if you don’t like it. ‚ America is rapidly nationalizing products and services and turning into a totalitarian country.
Your article is right on the money. I wish more people would read this.
The funny thing is that the world views businessmen as vile. Oh, Ayn Rand, if only you were still here!