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