Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Misquote of the day - Capitalists make products…

Max Abelson indirectly quotes Leon Cooperman, "They [Capitalists] make products that "fill store shelves at Christmas" and provide health care to millions." - "Bankers Seek to Debunk 'Imbecile' Attack on Top 1%", Bloomberg, 2011-12-19, via Yahoo! Finance. Cooperman is a hedge fund manager. I wouldn't exactly call a hedge fund manager a capitalist; I'd say a hedge fund manager is a gambler with other people's money.

Right! These capitalist are on the factory floor making toys and electronics. These capitalists are working the emergency rooms and the hospital rooms to heal sick and broken people. They really should spend some time reading Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations", every word of it.

For some very appropriate citations from Smith, see "Adam Smith on Labor and Profits (Letter to Reader Weekly)". Essentially, labor is the basis of wealth, if profits rise too far the nation is on the road to ruin, and the interests of business are not the interests of society.