by Rick Lowe

Johan Norberg is the author of the Winter 2007 Cato’s Letter at the Cato Institute.

Here’s an excerpt:

I think of a paragraph in Ludwig von Mises’ book Human Action, where he says that the market economy does not need apologists or propagandists. The best argument for the market economy can be found in the epitaph of Sir Christopher Wren, the architect who built and is buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral: “si monumentum requiris, circumspice” (if you are looking for a monument, look around you). Look at what he built. Look at his vision. You are standing in it right now.

That, I think, is the best defense that the market economy can ever hope for—that people look around and ponder the amazing things and opportunities that entrepreneurs and businesses
have given the world during the last 200 years. Just look around at the health, the wealth, the technologies, the opportunities, and the food on your plates. Could any of that have been possible for a king or a queen 200 years ago?

Later he states:

Some anti-globalists and people opposed to free trade are now wellpaid consultants who sit on the
boards of big companies and tell them that what they do is really a bad thing and that they must accept much more corporate social responsibility. In their terms, corporate social responsibility means that what you have done so far is not social. It is not enough to create goods, services, and technologies that increase our life expectancies and save the lives of our children. No, you need to do something more. After making your profit, you need to give something back to society.

Give something back to society? As if the entrepreneurs and capitalists had stolen something that belonged to society that they have to give back!

Profit is not something that we have to apologize for. Profit is proof that the capitalist has given something to society that it cherishes more than the material wealth it has given to the businessman.

Don’t miss the rest of the essay. It’s brilliant.

You can read the entire presentation by clicking here.