Gordon Gekko and Barack Obama

by David K. Williams, Jr. | 7:20 pm, October 30, 2008 | Comments Off

Gordon Gekko, Oliver Stone's evil corporate raider in the 1987 movie Wall Street, said "Greed is good."

Stone, with his usual subtleness, let us know that, in fact, greed is not good. And Stone is correct.

Greed is bad.

However, somehow the condemnation of greed has morphed into a hatred of profit.

It is as if the upcoming New Great Society promulgated by our next president is an all out attack on profit.

The "windfall" profit made by greedy oil companies must be taxed so that the wealth can be "spread around a little."

The existence of profit does not equate with the existence of greed. Greed is evil.

But profits keep children fed. Profits pay wages. Profits buy medicine. Profits create jobs.

The government, contrary to the overwhelming belief of our next president and his army of well-intentioned supporters, does not do any of these things.

Government, by itself, does not feed children. It does not pay wages. It does not buy medicine. It does not create jobs.

People confuse the government confiscation of someone else's profit with government money. The government does not earn its money. The government confiscates money earned by people and uses it to political ends. In some instances, like funding police and national defense, this confiscation is necessary. In most, it is not.

It is easy for the government to dole out largesse when it is doling out money it did not earn.

A faith in the inherent benevolence in the government is as misplaced as Gordon Gekko's belief in greed.

No, greed is not good. But neither is government largesse.

Any belief otherwise is misplaced.

And we are looking straight ahead at four years of government benevolence. When Obama's term is up, we will not be nearly as worried about "windfall" profits. There will not be any.

And we will learn, yet again, what happens when there is no profit for the government to confiscate.

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