Commentary: On December 2, 2011 I was excoriated by a young "conservative" named Mike, who wanted to give me a hiding for my communist views on "unregulated" capitalism. He called me or more precisely my views "ridiculous" I'll let you decide who is ridiculous. His tirade was quite lengthy so I am publishing my response in 9 parts as "A series of letters from Left to Right: Dear Mike Since his attack was full of vitriol I have taken off the gloves as I see no point of entertaining his bombastic rhetoric. Parts 5-9 are in-response to the object of his real distain—my critique of Adam Smith Re-examined.
I have color coded my blog post that he critiqued in red—his critique in blue—and my response to his critique in black.
This is Part 5a*
*Due to length I needed to subdivide Part 5 into three separate responses 5a-5b-5c
Adam Smith: The Budget Debate Examined
Once the plutocracy has destroyed the middle class who’s going to buy their cheap China imports or afford to pay for their energy or buy their over processed foods or pay their exorbitant interest rates and usurious service fees.
Blah, blah, blah, he hates inexpensive foreign goods but still wants everything for free, paid for by someone else who earned more than him.
Dear Mike,
Your insulting personal attacks and baseless assumptions aside.
Let me introduce myself.
My name is also Mike.
It may surprise you that I actually believe in Capitalism, but, unlike you, only in as far as it is regulated and those regulations are rigorously enforced.
I have never bought a foreign made car because I prefer supporting the "domestic" US economy—to an economy that includes "unregulated countries like China—that game the system and are not accountable for things like: putting melamine—a white crystalline compound made by heating cyanamide and used in making plastics—into baby food to increase its weight.
Did I mention they use slave labor to undercut the wages of American workers—but I forget amoral "unregulated" capitalist theory doesn't worry about such niceties as liberty, human rights—only how much you can profit.
I believe in supporting local merchants and I try to buy American made products if I can find them. A model closer to Adam Smith's original idea—which was based on an agrarian economy—where—for the most part, people knew each other and were much less likely to cheat on their neighbors who probably attended the same church and married into the family.
I've worked my entire life from the age of twelve—when I delivered newspapers as my first job, both home delivery and on the street. I have worked at manual labor jobs including farm work, house and road construction, I have always respected hard honest work and find dignity in it—a trait I learned from my father, a small business owner, my mother who raised seven children and my grandmother, who as a young girl, stood in fresh cow pies to keep her feet warm when she milked the cows, on a farm in North Central Minnesota because the family was too poor to let her wear shoes except in the dead of winter. I instilled those traits in my sons who both had paper routes at age twelve.
I was not drafted—I enlisted in the Navy out of high school. I took my oath to protect and defend this nation against enemies both foreign and domestic—as a life long duty I am honor bound to fulfill. Especially from fascist, who want to do away with this Democratic Republic and replace it with an economic theory that enslaves people and then throws them out on the street like so much garbage.
That visceral dislike of fascism was an ideal I got from the generation that preceded my own who fought and defeated fascism in Europe. You may have heard of them as "the Greatest Generation" I knew them as neighbors, cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers, and fathers, and I feel duty bound to protect their sacrifices. One of the first childhood memories I have is flinching at loud reports from 3 volleys of a 21 gun salute, as the body of a neighbor boy from our hometown, who was killed in Italy, was buried, his name was, Darcy Isman. He delivered groceries to our house, before he went to war and was killed.
I have run my own small business that employed 13 people and—by your limited definition of success—sold the business at a profit. I have always paid every dime of tax that I "owe" because I am grateful to have been—by accident of birth—born into a country that use to know the virtues of honor, which for you an explanation seems appropriate—"doing the right thing even when no one is looking".
I don't ask for or get anything that I didn't earn. I have always paid my own way and I have been on this planet 67 years.
Finally, I was taught that craftsmanship was an expression of a man's dignity. Therefore: I hate shoddy inferior products that are meant to disintegrate in your hands the minute you try and use them and then the endless amount of BS they put you through to reclaim your money only to be given an in-store credit for more of their shoddy crap.
This is the end of Part 5a go to: