“Some Socialists see private enterprise as a tiger—a predatory animal to be shot. Others see it as an old cow to be milked. But we Conservatives see it as a sturdy horse that pulls along our economy.”- Winston Churchill
Unfortunately, in our modern age, many people have chosen to scorn the institutions which have brought prosperity and freedom. One of these institutions is free market capitalism. Although it is often caricatured as being a system for the greedy and ignorant, many who offer the loudest criticisms have never actually read about capitalism.
Far from blindly endorsing profiteers and business owners, Adam Smith, capitalism’s intellectual founder, was highly skeptical of businessmen. The famed economist Thomas Sowell notes that Smith’s views of capitalists were almost as bleak as those of Karl Marx. In the first book of his classic The Wealth of Nations Smith warns his readers that “The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order [profiteers], ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention.”
Modern day leftists would do well to remember this sound advice. Although they constantly lambast the corporate sector, many are happy to support companies that offer woke messaging. For instance, they cheer as the NBA plasters the court with progressive slogans while turning a blind eye to oppression in China.
Similarly, bourgeois individuals purchasing hundreds of dollars worth of clothing from Nike marvel at ads featuring Colin Kaepernick while ignoring the fact that Nike lobbied against a bill to put increased tariffs on products made with slave labor.
Everyone would do well to keep the danger of profiteers in mind when judging big tech, which is perhaps the most powerful sector on the planet. These companies have the ability to propagandize, silence information they disagree with, and create an artificial environment.
Meta (formerly Facebook) which is on the cutting edge of the social media sector recently released an ad campaign asking for regulators to take action against them. Such an odd request was met with applause by many who naively viewed this company as acting in a selfless manner for the general public.
Unfortunately, we should keep in mind Adam Smith’s prescient warning about the danger of corporations. Far from acting out of selflessness, Facebook and their marketing executives are acting in a manner that is contrary to the public interest.
Due to public uproar, they are unable to ban people without incurring significant reputational damage and backlash. Twitter, for example, has seen a number of users, including Joe Rogan move over to the free speech platform Gettr.
By allowing a governmental agency to step in and regulate their company, social media moguls could have their cake and eat it too. They would be able to censor at will while avoiding the reputational damage that comes along with such actions. If a government agency ordered them to censor content, they could abdicate responsibility and continue to stop the spread of information they dislike.
Despite the fact that leftists often like to think of themselves as rebels, they are perhaps the most establishmentarian group in America. Far from being skeptical of power, they embrace the ability of power to influence and control others. Whereas “right-wingers” such as Adam Smith have viewed corporations as a necessary aspect of a healthy economy, leftists view corporations as another outlet to increase their political power.
