Oil company CEO: “…it’s true… we do make a lot of money. Or, at least we used to. What do we do with that money? Well, to be honest, that’s really none of your business. If you’re really that interested, what say you get some skin in the game, buy some preferred stock in our company, and then you’ll know what happens to the money because you’ll be getting some of it. That’s why it’s called a profit, hoss. And frankly, we’re not all that concerned with what you think anymore anyway. Why? Because people like you keep electing government officials who won’t even let companies like ours get back to work producing the products we sell. You think our gasoline is expensive now? Keep it up.”

If I were a Greek business owner, I would fire all my employees, shut down my company – yes, even take a loss – and move to Ireland or any other country with a more friendly business environment.  What other rational response is there to insanity like this?

Call a general strike. Riot. Shut down the city centers. Toss the bastards out. Do not be afraid of the language of class warfare—the rich versus the poor, the oligarchs versus the citizens, the capitalists versus the proletariat. The Greeks, unlike most of us, get it.

You know who “got it?”  The three bank clerks the insane rampaging mob murdered when they set a bank on fire and refused to let them out or the fire department in got it, though.  They paid the price for the mob’s willful refusal to understand basic economics.  And that refusal can only be met with one answer: complete abandonment.  Productive people should get out now, and let the mob learn the lessons of the USSR, Cuba, Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

6Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. 7For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, 8nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. 9It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. 10For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. 11For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. 12Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.^d
2 Thessalonians 3:6-12

h/t Hot Air

I <3 Milton Friedman.  He really had a talent for framing things, for taking back the narrative, and patiently, kindly poking large holes in liberal assumptions about how things should work.  His appearance on Donahue discussing “greed” and the “maldistribution of wealth” is one wonderful example, and here’s another:

His point that America’s poor are unimaginably wealthy compared to most of the rest of the world is well taken. While politicians stir up class warfare and trumpet the supposed injustice of “two Americas” (presumably he doesn’t mean the one in which I pay my taxes, and the other in which the Secretary of the Treasury does not), the truth is that in terms of consumption, the gap between the rich and the poor closes more every year.  This is indisputable, and is exactly why politicians and press focus so intently on the income gap instead.

It is capitalism which makes products cheaper and more accessible all the time. “The poor” in America have microwaves, cars, cell phones, cable television, iPods and video games. Only about a third of those classified as “poor” by our government suffer real want. Less than 15 million households. (And the church, if we ever chose to actually obey the bible’s mandates to serve the poor, could easily take care of those people. That would eliminate the excuse for the entitlements bankrupting us.)

I typically don’t watch long videos, but I can easily spend an hour on Youtube watching Milton Friedman defend capitalism.  We need another one like him today; an agile thinker who can quickly, cheerfully dismantle the assumptions behind the questions liberals ask.  It’s not perfect, but there is currently no better system than capitalism for lifting people out of poverty.

h/t Say Anything for the video.