I Was on C-Span, and All I Got Was This Lousy E-Mail

I didn’t realize my talk on this book at a conference back in April was going to be on C-Span this morning. I wouldn’t even have known it had aired had I not received this note:

“I find your defense of the free market very troublesome. Does it make any difference that billions of humans throughout the world are impoverished and deprived of the basic necessities of life?

“The free market does not seem to care about the millions suffering in Haiti, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe. These people are dying while the obese American consumers go shopping at the mall.”

To which I replied, simply:“How much capitalism is there in Haiti, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe? Why is it that Botswana is so much more prosperous than other countries in Africa? Why is it that the condition of the poorest is far, far better in economically freer societies?”

Seriously, though, consider the irrationality of his objection. The free market is bad because people are impoverished in places that don’t have a free market.

Share

10:19 am on July 8, 2006