Unlike Will Rogers,
I have met a number of men who I did not like.
Perhaps Will did not get out much.
I’ve never met Donald Sterling but I get it. He’s a jerk.
He’s said some nasty and objectionable things.
Nonetheless Donald Sterling, as an NBA owner, has run a
business that has turned dozens of African Americans into millionaires. Despite what he may or may not really feel
about people of African ancestry, he realizes that to run a credible basketball
enterprise he must employ top notch talent.
In the basketball business that talent is overwhelmingly Black. Sir Charles is correct when he says that the NBA “is a Black league”.
Donald’s case is a sterling example of Adam Smith’s
“invisible hand”. By selfishly pursuing
his own interest, Sterling inadvertently helped many Black men become
rich. He wasn’t dumb enough to staff his
roster with a bunch of suckey white stiffs.
Smith discovered that while an individual strives for his own enrichment,
"He generally neither
intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it
... He intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases,
led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.
Nor is it always the worse for society that it was no part of his intention. By
pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more
effectually than when he really intends to promote it.”
Let’s consider the reverse situation. The apparatchiks of the American welfare
state have lots of warm and fuzzy things to say about minorities. Yet nearly fifty years ago the liberal
Democrat, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, sounded the alarms that the welfare
system was destroying African American families and communities. And even under the auspices of America’s
first Black President, the fortunes of Americans have continued to erode. This was forcefully
pointed out NAACP president, Benjamin Jealous. Nearly 250 years ago Smith saw that
government meddling caused nothing but hardship. “I have never known much good done by those
who affected to trade
for the public good."
This does not excuse Sterling’s gaffs. However, it begs the question of who would
you prefer to have in your corner – the a-hole who makes you millions or the
nice guy who bankrupts you?
Milton Friedman nailed
it when he wrote that, “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and
programs by their intentions rather than their results.” Our supposedly compassionate welfare state
only aggravates the plight of the economic underclass. In addition is stokes
resentment among taxpayers and recipients alike.
The market brings people together who
may not like each other. However they
soon learn to cooperate and make exchanges for mutual benefit.
We can never know what is in a man’s
soul. That’s between him and his Maker
or his shrink. However, we do know that
the free market rewards those who serve their neighbors well and who do the
best job of creating satisfaction for customers.
A nation of happy consumers and
prosperous pleasers is good enough for me.
To return to Mr. Smith, “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher
the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to
their own interest.”
Unlike Will Rogers, these merchants
need not like us nor we them. Businesses
sell to us because they want our money.
We give them money because we want meat, bread and brewskies.
The collectivist, however, wants much more
than burgers, bread and brew. He wants your
heart, you mind and your soul. He cares little
for your material well being.
Recognition of our interdependence is
what enables flawed, limited and even stupid men, such as this writer, and
women to cooperate freely and prosper harmoniously.
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"Half the people are stoned and the other half are waiting for the next election.
Half the people are drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction."
- Paul Simon
Half the people are drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction."
- Paul Simon
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