The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

1972 BUSINESS BAITING - 1972 STYLE 369In this new era ecologists aredecrying technology as a polluter,ignoring the capability of technololgyto develop methods to minin1izepollution. The alarm ringersassume that they alone want aworld of pure air and pure water.They jump to the conclusion thatthe profit motive is the enemy ofNature. Perceptible gains willcome when there is mature recognitionthat technology is a humantool and can be devoted to man'sends. If, by way of illustration,existing methods of burning coalor using gasoline in automobileengines pollute, then it makessense to accelerate research anddevelopment to find ways ofachieving the benefits while controllingthe adverse. effects. Insteadof viewing the problem inthe naive spirit of setting the goodguys against the bad guys, it istime to recognize that leaving theenvironment in the form that menfind it is consistent with goodbusiness. If consumers desire lesspollution, they will need to understandthat devices to avoid pollutionare a cost of producing goodsand services.Thomas Robert Malthus, theeconomist, warned in 1798 of oncomingunavoidable poverty anddistress on grounds that populationincreases by geometric ratioand the means of subsistence onlyby arithmetical ratio. However,his prophecy has been unfulfilled.Methods of cultivating land havenot remained static. Creativeminds in science, invention andengineering have developed newand better means of production,and in advanced economies a spectacularlysmaller ratio of the totalpopulation than in earlier times isproducing vastly more abundantquantities of food and fibers.In light of the contemporary organizedefforts to put a ceiling oneconomic progress, it doesn't makesense for investors, financiers andmanaging directors of great companiesto ignore the impact of thenew-style business baiting. PerhapsI can do no better than torepeat here what I said in 1938in my pamphlet "Sell the Businessas Well as the Product":1mproving the climate of popularopinion would help to remove the barriersto a free circulation of goodsand services from makers to users.... Misstatements and misconceptionsabout business have been sowidely propagated that disseminationof the truth by business wouldbe .enormously helpful. Businesswould not have to gild the lily, fortruth is much more favorable thancurrent rumor.The country needs to escape fromthe tyranny of obscure, weasel wordsand from doctrinaire ideology. Simplearithmetic, in double-entry form,as understandable as the family budget,can be used to photograph for