4
Opinion
P 8
Friday, July 17, 1981
The Michigan Daily
Big business not a big villain
Business, particularly big business, has long been
considered by various ideologues as the enemy of
everything held dear to them and their goals for
society. To defend anything already condemned as
the villain of mankind seems impossible. It isn't
really.
By Mark Gindin
The use of profits by a company apparently bothers
some people. Rest assured the company will use
Ttand right fight
If somebody in the market can sell a product for
much more than its cost to them, good luck to them.
Only when the profits are conspicuously huge do
people begin their crusade to end them.
The ultimate fear of big business is that of impen-
ding monopoly. A true monopoly has never occurred
in the history of free business unless sponsored by the
government, such as the post office and AT&T. There
is always competition in a free market. As long as
barriers such as tarriffs do not interfere, a free
market is the best way to give the most service to the
most people.
Included in the new Reagan budget are provisions
to free the private sector, including a lenient attitude
toward Activity by business. Not only is the attitude
healthy for business, but also the economy and the
consumer.
Because all business, from labor hiring to goods
purchasing, is based on voluntary transaction, it is
absurd to hold that business does not know or care
what it does with its power and money. The consumer
has a voice to direct company policy, through the in-
visible hand of the market, regardless of the com-
pany's size. The business of America is business, and
to criticize it in the name of the consumer or the
worker is ignoring the realities of the market.
Mark Gind in is a Daily news staff writer.
4
I
PROFIT IS NOT bad. As an incentive, it is the
reason for being in business in the first place. If it
weren't there, no transactions would take place.
Some types of business-manufacturing for exam-
ple-most economically are run on a large scale.
Mass production is a great invention. To reach that
point, profits have been used to invest in the business
and to make it larger and more economical.
THE MERGER currently being considered by
DuPont and Conoco would, for instance, reduce their
costs of doing business, and thus the costs to the con-
sumer. When more of the larger company's product
is sold, profits increase, and then everybody, in-
cluding the consumer, is happy.
them to improve the company's position in the
marketplace and therefore benefit the consumer. If
the money is not used wisely (i.e. wage increases),
the company will pay in the long run.
SINCE THE COMPANY makes money by serving
the consumer, all actions it takes must be in the best
interests of the consumer. If they weren't, the com-
pany, no matter how big, would fail.
Obscene profits, then, are subjective. Of course a
larger company makes larger profits, but that is no
reason to say the profits are controlling the will of the
consumer or anyone else. To charge that is to un-
derestimate the public. Profits can only occur if the
consumer is willfully giving money to the company.
4
The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCl, No. 42-S
Ninety Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
A tragi~c loss
T WAS A FOUL, frostbitten night in Grand
Rapids several years ago, when Harry
Chapin and his band were scheduled to play a
concert. While a large audience gathered in-
side the chilly Cascade Ice Arena, there were
indications that the show would be cancelled,
that the band would be snowbound. There was
no official word.
Soon, an announcement came: The other
musicians were in fact stuck, but Chapin him-
self would appear. Several minutes later, he
did. Unprepared for a solo performance, but
jovial nevertheless, Chapin quickly en-
chanted the crowd with an improvised per-
formance, the proceeds of which went to the
cause of fighting world hunger.
His death yesterday comes as a terrible
shock, reviving the memories of that Grand
Rapids concert as well as others he has per-
formed, and calling all of our attention-in the
most painful of circumstances-to his
remarkable career as an artist and as a
promoter of justice. Without fanfare, he
traveled the world to share his music and his
causes, and he made millions of friends in
many countries. We will miss Harry Chapin,
and we hope that the selfless tradition he
established-the authentic sincerity that
made him a rarity in the pop music
world-will endure.
Economic gains
no just fjication for
ravaging society
Variations on a theme. Get By Fred Schill busting conglomerate in our
government off the back of big history.
business and the country will all. How soon we forget. Environ-
prosper once again. What we WHAT BETTER time to mental regulations-yes, often
need to do is stimulate invest- reduce the minimum wage than a expensive ones forced on
business bcause it was more in-
Met.r What's good for General time when the nation's poor are trse nmkn oe hni
Motors is good for the countrY. rapidly getting poorer? We can kereptinheGat Lakoesygrati
There's an idea floating around count on big business to go out keeping ho River alive (which
wherever you find Libertarians and hire more laborers if we just hCuyahoga
and conservative Republicans let them hire those laborers got so glutted with pollutants that
grazing that solving the woes of cheaper. it once caught on fire), the air
big business will mean solving These are all just variations on hCanl cleand places like Love
e nflatary s s teory a theme of "Let big business OCCUPATIONAL health laws,
is in. Capitalism equals America ; carry America ; they're such
if one is healthy, the other will good guys they'll do it if we just costly as they may be, were made
goodow sut. gs the y'oitir e j t because business did not care
follow suit. give them a fair chance." that its coal miners were dying
THAT, ROUGHLY, is Idon't buyit.Rh ackalungershwe e
Reaganomica. Suddenly BIG BUSINESS is "over- from black ng or that textile
Washington is falling all over it- regulated" because it abused the and_ plastica workers were
inhaling toxic particles.
self finding ways to give business free market system, the people it Minimum wage laws were
a booster shot, the idea being that employed, and the law-all in the mnmedbwage businere
business will then turn around vital interest of making money. refused to a decent wage
and start hiring all those poor And when it comes right down to s paygto
unemployed people. it and loyalties start getting, its employees-in fact, it hired
So now is the time to lift en- test we will find ce agan h children and payed them peanuts
vironmental regulations on business isn't interested in saving as long as they were allowed to.
automobile manufacturers and America from poverty, inflation, Given a break from gover-
energy companies. A little more and the environment, but in nment regulations, big business
dirt in the air and drinking supply making money. Isn't that what will go out and make more money
won't hurt anybody, as long as we capitalism is all about? for its stockholders, at the expen-
can encourage growth in our in- Relaxing rules and regulations se of you and me. For my money,
dustries. on business in order to you can keep them honest and
And now is the time to wipe a "stimulate" it is like an open in- give all of those tax breaks to the
couple of thousand occupational vitation to the abuses showered people who need them-the poor.
health rules off the books. upon workers by the likes of
Nothinghwrong with a few people Standard Oil, AT&T, the railroad, Fred Schil/ is a Daily arts staff
getting hurt on the job if it will textile, and coal industries, andwriter.
mean a healthier industry for every other price-fixing, union- rfr
4
0
a
4
4