79-14-A7

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In Defense of Success

Transcript The rich get poorer and the poor get poorer. That's how George Gilder begins his unorthodox but thoughtful defense of society's most successful members in a recent essay in the AMERICAN SPECTATOR. Gilder provides ample evidence to support his claim that in every age and every culture, society's most productive members seem to be subjected to intense vilification. In recent history, we have witnessed the holocaust of Jews in Nazi Germany; the pogroms of Kulaks and Jews in Russia; the slaughter of Ibo tribesmen in northern Nigeria; the killing of nearly a million overseas Chinese and now, in Vietnam, the wholesale expulsion of ethnic Chinese. In each of these examples, the tragedy was precipitated by a combination of racism and resentment of the minority's economic successes. Gilder writes "Everywhere nations proclaim a determinations to 'develop'; but everywhere, too, their first goal is expropriate, banish or kill the existing developers." In the United States, this vicious resentment takes a milder form. Often, an individual who succeeds in business is assumed to be dishonest. These assumptions sometimes take the form of an ethnic stereotype. Thus, the successful Italian businessman is automatically assumed by many to be involved in organized crime. A successful Chinese restaurant or laundry is a front for the opium trade, and so forth. Non-ethnic attitudes toward businessmen take an equally harsh tone. Those who subscribe to these beliefs are part of a growing segment of Americans who assume that the accumulation of wealth is inherently a dishonest activity. That one man's wealth causes another's poverty. We might just dismiss these notions as the superstition and envy of those who have failed to attain their goals in a free society. But, according to Gilder, these attitudes have captured the hearts and minds of many in influential government and academic circles. Gilder writes "Wealth causes poverty -- an idea that has burst like blinding sunlight in the mind of many a young radical and still shines brightly for all those who seek some alternative to hard work, thrift, inequality and free exchange as a way of escaping want. How much easier it is -- rather than learning the hard lessons of the world -- merely to rage at the rich..." The bureaucratic class is bent upon convincing the poor it claims to represent that the producers of wealth are the cause of their problems. That one individual's success means that another. is being downtrodden. Nothing could be further from the truth. American society is the most mobile society in the history of the world. The business successes of some are successes for all of us because of their total effect on our economy -- in terms of jobs, investment and consumer choices. Most successes still recognize the value of virtues such as hard work, ambition and the willingness to take risks. We know that these attributes can still set an individual on a path toward success, regardless of his background. Success is something to reward and congratulate in America, not something to resent. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 79-14-A7 Production Date 10/02/1979 Book/Page Online PDF Audio Youtube? No
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