I left work early today, which allowed me to hear an exchange on the Michael Medved radio show that I would have missed otherwise. I must say, I have never heard the mild-mannered Medved as exercised as he was with this caller.
The discussion was about the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs. The caller, whom, since I came in late, don’t know who he was or what his credentials, was saying that it was “immoral” for Steve Jobs to be “allowed” to have all that money when people are starving in the world (Jobs had a net worth of more than $8 billion when he passed away yesterday). Medved went ballistic at that. “It’s called freedom!” he asserted. “In a free society, people get to work hard and keep the fruits of their labors!”
My comment to my wife who was listening with me in the car, was that it was immoral for the government to take so much of the fruits of his labor away from Jobs!
Then the caller said what made ME go ballistic. “After all,” he said, “There’s only so much money in the world.” Michael Medved really went off on him then, but I didn’t hear most of it because I unloaded with both barrels myself. Sorry that my wife had to listen to both of us.
The caller voiced the Big Economic Lie of the left, that economics is a “Zero-Sum Game”, which means if one person has a dollar, it’s because they have deprived another person of having enough. Anyone with a brain who takes the time to think about it knows that is the furthest thing from the truth. It’s not as if Steve Jobs was sitting on a pile of wrapped $100 bills that added up to $8 billion while people around him were hungry.
You can be sure that Steve Jobs, savvy business man that he obviously was, had put that money to work in a variety of ways. Here are just a few possibilities:
Obviously a lot of his wealth was probably in Apple stock, which is not really money at all until you sell it, but think of the tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of people who put food on their families’ tables because of the value of that company and the products it produces! And, note to the caller: that value was not stolen from anybody; before Steve Jobs and Apple, that value, those salaries, those retirees’ investments, didn’t exist. It’s NEW value added to the economic mix as a result, not just of hard work, but of creative genius.
There is NOT a static amount of money. Entrepreneurs and dreamers like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and many more going back to Andrew Carnegie and beyond CREATE wealth that didn’t exist before. And in the process they create prosperity for many, many people.
Besides the thousands who have worked for Apple, there are thousands more who have started businesses to provide software and “apps” for Apple products and to piggyback on the technology with their own innovations; activities which the bitter, petty caller has no clue about.
But even if Steve Jobs did have $8 billion dollars sitting there, what was he likely to do with it? You can be sure he wouldn’t have stuffed it into his mattress. He would have at least put it into a bank, where it could be loaned out to thousands who dream of owning a home, a new car, starting a family, etc.
But Jobs probably also invested in other companies, which enabled them to hire people, build facilities, expand operations into new regions, etc.; each company creating NEW wealth of its own.
But some of his money Jobs certainly spent on high-dollar toys, like cars, boats, vacation homes, etc. All of which, might inspire jealousy and covetousness in the caller, but created jobs for countless factory workers, truck drivers, construction workers and salespersons.
But the caller would have none of that. He would prefer all those truck drivers, construction workers, car salesmen and real estate agents not have work, if it requires that someone be rich. Oh, and by the way, I’ll bet Steve Jobs gave more to charity than the caller will earn in his lifetime.
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