Charles Musser – 5/7/08

This page was last updated on May 7, 2008.

Woes of free enterprise; Charles Musser; Beaver County Times; May 7, 2008.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“One of our great freedoms in this country is our system of free enterprise: make as much as you please for self gain with no government restrictions.”

[RWC] Mr. Musser refers to “free enterprise” as “[o]ne of our great freedoms,” yet spends his entire letter telling us why we need to eliminate this freedom.

“For the wealthy, this system is great. But for the indigent, free enterprise can be a nightmare.”

[RWC] By the time you get to the end of the letter, you come to the conclusion Mr. Musser apparently believes billionaires take money that otherwise would have been earned by “the indigent.”

“Something is very wrong when individuals have billions and people in this country are freezing to death, starving or can’t afford medicine to survive.”

[RWC] According to Forbes Magazine, as of March 2008 approximately 475 Americans were billionaires. Their total wealth was approximately $1.6 trillion. Spread out over the U.S. population of about 300 million, $1.6 trillion is about $5,333 per person.

With all of the government programs and private charities in the U.S., anyone who freezes to death, starves, or doesn’t get required medicine does so because that’s their decision. I’d like to see Mr. Musser provide a list of Americans who “freeze to death” or who are “starving.”

“Billionaires, especially oil barons, became very wealthy because they ripped off everybody under them. The product they sold was inflated, but because people needed it, they got 100 times what it was worth.”

[RWC] If oil were priced “100 times what it was worth,” no one would have bought it.

“No one needs $1 billion, and no one will spend $1 billion in 20 lifetimes. With my way of thinking, I would say, go ahead and make a billion, but every billion after that would be taxed so heavily that it wouldn’t be worth the effort.”

[RWC] Does Mr. Musser not know that billionaires also provide millions of jobs that put food on the table, heat in the house, and pay for healthcare? Using Mr. Musser’s “logic,” billionaires should go out of business, and in the process kill the jobs they generated.

“I realize my thinking is abstract, but when millions are suffering and billions of dollars will never be used — ever — our system needs to be restructured.”

[RWC] “[B]illions of dollars will never be used?” Does Mr. Musser believe the wealthy stuff their wealth under their mattress or hoard the cash in safe deposit boxes? What isn’t used to buy stuff, pay taxes, and make charitable donations is invested. These investments make possible other businesses and the jobs they produce. Where did Mr. Musser get his understanding of how economies work? It appears Mr. Musser believes the economy is a pie of fixed size, and that what one person earns is taken from someone else.