"Profits without honor: Part II", Thomas Sowell
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20031224.shtml
An open letter to Thomas Sowell:
Sir:
I've read your three-parter on "profits", and found your
position to be extraordinarily unfounded in Truth.
There are Profits, and there are 'profits'.
The former serves the common good by creating jobs -
which ramifies within families and communities - advancing
technology, contributing to the national treasure through the
paying of taxes, etc. - Profits underpin all of this good stuff,
not solely, but to a substantial degree.
'profits', on the other hand, do not give anything back. Folks
who accrue 'profits' send jobs overseas 'because' doing so
increases 'profits', but at what a cost: an ever-decreasing
quantity of money in the pockets of an ever-decreasing
number of people.
It's easy to see where this leads - it leads to a 'state' in which
the critical mass of consumers becomes smaller than is
necessary to sustain robust Profits. The 'profit'-seekers have
shot not only themselves in the foot, but society as a whole.
But that's not the worst inherent in 'profit'-seeking.
'profit'-seekers also commit all manner of fraud upon society -
as in 'Enron' and the 'mutual fund' scandals - as in all of the
collective snake-oil 'salesmanship' that's been
inflicted upon society over the generations. The 'profit'-seekers
even have a 'motto' for such, "Buyer beware", only they usually
say it in Latin, I suppose, to celebrate their 'euridition'.
But that's not the worst of it.
'profit'-seekers prey upon innocents, through the use of the very
"Pavlovian" stuff that you dinigrated in part II of your series,
shamelessly invoking The First Amendment of The Constitution
of The United States of America as. supposedly, 'giving them the
right' to do so, when it does nothing of the kind. The Constitution
of The United States of America flat-out stands against such
predition.
But that's not the worst of it.
The worst of it happens when the predation of the 'profit'-seekers
is directed, in the guise of thinly-veiled Pavlovian conditioning, at
Children who've not yet even reached the age of reason.
That's why, Mr. Sowell, that, while Profits are an absolute
necessity and a worthy goal, 'profits' are, in fact, foul, dirty, and
destructive all around.
If you care to do so, I invite you to respond in the
bionet.neuroscience Internet News Group.
Sincerely,
k. p. collins