Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Tom Friedman Is Not Smart. Why Is He Rich?
FAIR takes Tom Friedman to task for this:
Dear America, please remember how you got to be the wealthiest country in history. It wasn't through protectionism, or state-owned banks or fearing free trade. No, the formula was very simple: build this really flexible, really open economy, tolerate creative destruction so dead capital is quickly redeployed to better ideas and companies, pour into it the most diverse, smart and energetic immigrants from every corner of the world and then stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat, stir and repeat.FAIR notes, correctly:
If you don't understand that the United States developed its economy behind high tariff walls, then you probably believe the Earth is flat.However, they missed some rather important additional points that Friedman left out of his "simple formula" - slavery and imperialism, through which the U.S. exploited both the labor and resources of other countries of the world to amass greater wealth than any other country had ever known. Just, you know, minor points which Friedman conveniently "forgot" along with the high tariffs.
