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10 Economics Lessons For Socialists and Musicians

Boys, I appreciate your passion on the subject and I think your hearts in the right place about wanting to "Stop Poverty in Africa", but we need to go over a few basic economic things here before you do more damage, so here goes...

1. Someone with money is not the reason that someone else doesnt have any.

2. You can't get rid of poverty by making wealth illegal.

3. Any economic system based on the redistribution of wealth will only result in greater poverty, less civil and human rights until eventually there are no rights or wealth left for the government to redistribute. Markets can and do redistribute wealth in a way that is the most just and most fair based on the expressed needs, wants and desires set forth in the marketplace by its participants. One fundamental purpose of government is to oversee the function of the market to ensure its fairness and equity to the participants.

4. Rich people dont steal money from poor people, because by definition poor people dont have any wealth to steal. Poor people are exploited by rich people when they are allowed by the government an unequitable exchange for labor. Strikes are an answer to that problem, but only so long as they are protected by the government. However, government must act to protect the rights of both the business and the labor markets, not one or the other, but both.

5. People dont get paid by how hard they work, they get paid by how hard they are to replace. If theres a 100 people who do what you do and theres only 90 positions, someone isnt going to get a seat when the music stops and the ones seated will get less than they want as long as there are 10 people sitting idle who can take their place. However, if you are the only one who can do something and its in demand, you get to name your price.

6. Poor people are created by a system of government that does not respect and develop property rights for its citizens. To put it more simply;"If you cant own property - you are property". Countries where the citizenry are encouraged to own property and have their property rights protected are almost always by definition, rich. Countries where property rights are somewhat questionable are almost always poor.

7. There is nothing noble in being poor. There is nothing virtuous in being rich. Dont confuse the basic value of all human life with the temporary economic circumstances and marketability of any individual. Fortunes rise and fall, but people are always the same.

8. The quickest way to make someone poor is to give them money. The quickest way to make them rich is teach them a skill thats in demand. Education is the best way to end poverty.

9. In the modern world, Famines are not the result of natural weather conditions or poor agriculture methods but the actions of socialist governments interfering with markets for the purpose of controlling their populations. When you see those horrible pictures of children starving, its important that you realize its a form of economic genocide that is occuring, not bad farming practices. Someone is killing those people, they didnt just die because they couldnt plow their fields.

10. Boys, I know this is gonna hurt when you hear it, but you need to hear it. All that money you raised for "The Poor of Africa"? Not one dime of it wll ever get to the hands of those who are actually poor. It will all, every single dime, drachma, euro, pound, sheckel will end up in the hands of some warlord dictator or thug. The unfortunate fact is this Gentleman; that your act of kindness has probably done more to ensure that poverty continues in Africa for another generation. So long as there are well meaning Western liberal leftists like yourself willing to throw money at the "poor of Africa", there will be a thug in Africa ensuring that there are poor in Africa for you to rescue. Thanks to you and your "help" there is no incentive to end that trade.

Here's a few books to check out next time you guys want to help. Maybe you should just hire a plane to airdrop these into Africa the next time you want to "help the poor".

The Mystery of Capital - Hernando De Soto

You Can Negotiate Anything - Herb Cohen

The Road to Serfdom - F.A. Hayek

Posted @ July 06, 2005 09:48 PM | Current Affairs