A Lesson For The Economically Challenged

"The key insight of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is misleadingly simple: if an exchange between two parties is voluntary, it will not take place unless both believe they will benefit from it. Most economic fallacies derive from the neglect of this simple insight, from the tendency to assume that there is a fixed pie, that one party can gain only at the expense of another." - Milton Friedman

“The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.” - Michelle Obama

Here we have two quotes. One by a Nobel Prizewinning economic GENIUS, the other by an economic dunce. I think you can guess which is which.

I *loathe* hearing the “piece of the pie” economic “argument,” especially when it comes from people who can't seem to be bothered enough to actually think for themselves, those who seem to think that there's a fixed amount of wealth in the world, and that what *I* earn comes at the expense of someone else, as Mr. Friedman so ably stated above.

All one needs to do to prove that the pie gets bigger, with more wealth being created over time, is find 2 pictures of almost any city (with a few exceptions – Detroit, anyone?); one from about a century ago, and one from today. Compare them, really study them.

Notice the difference? If there's just a set amount of wealth in the world, where did all those improvements come from? Those of you reading this post on a mobile device, be it a tablet, smart-phone, laptop, whatever it may be – where did the wealth come from to create those gadgets?

In order to get down to the basic, unadulterated facts, let's leave government interference, in the forms of excessive taxation, unnecessary regulations, etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum, aside for this discussion. Trust me - if we didn't, we'd be here for five years before we reached the start, let alone the actual point.

I know the economics and arithmetic challenged liberals aren't going to understand what I'm about to say – a fact that makes this even better for me – but think about it like this: Suppose I write a book and have it published. This book sells far and wide, and it sells tremendously well, garnering me millions upon millions of dollars. Suddenly, I'm a very wealthy man.

On the surface, to those who persist upon seeing a “fixed pie,” it appears that I achieved my new-found and ill-gotten wealth by taking money from others, while they got nothing in return. They don't get a part of my “share” of the pie. The reality, however, is far different.

Those who purchased my hypothetical book not only received the book, they presumably also got some enjoyment from reading it. They were provided a product AND a service, for which I was compensated, thus making the transaction mutually beneficial. As an added bonus, that transaction helped pay the salaries of the people who published, printed, stored, shipped, and sold the book, increasing their wealth as well. Not a single person was actually deprived of anything; nobody “lost” their piece of the pie, as it were.

That's called capitalism, also known as the free market. It's the only known economic system that consistently lifts people out of poverty, raises standards of living, and ensures what you leave behind is better than what you found. The sooner the “big government” leftists understand this, the better off we'll all be. Yes, even THEM!!! ~ Hunter

Please give my Facebook page a “Like.”