By Ron Hart
Once again, businesses stand out as the most important U.S. asset in the conflict Russia has caused in Ukraine. As with Operation Warp Speed getting out a COVID vaccine in unprecedented time, American companies stand out as important and prove why capitalism serves us so well. Our businesses have done more to punish Russia after its aggression in Ukraine than our self-important and bumbling government.
After the Biden administration’s embarrassing pullout of Afghanistan and failed diplomatic efforts to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine, our vaunted U.S. government remains a cuckold in this predictable mess. Corporations have done more to change the hearts and minds of the Russian people toward Putin’s war of choice than any federal government action.
U.S. companies which have suspended activity in Russia include Levi’s, Visa, Goldman Sachs, John Deere, McDonald’s, Netflix, PornHub and Johnson & Johnson (which might be a subsidiary of PornHub). Russia is a vodka-fueled and porn-based economy. All the porn enthusiasts there not getting their porn really hits ‘em where it hurts.
Now with what PornHub has done, you can still get a mail-order bride from Russia, but she no longer comes with video instructions.
With war in Ukraine, pictures are posted of empty highways there during rush hour. PornHub could quickly make up the money it has lost in Russia by posting those “no traffic” videos on its website and score five million views from salivating and gridlocked Atlanta commuters.
Inside the Biden/Harris rhetoric of “income inequality” and “attack the rich,” used mainly to sway envy-driven, simple minds, is a dangerous subtext: that capitalism and entrepreneurs are bad and those in our government are good. Nothing could be further from the truth. They assign angelic motives to their woke agenda, all the while causing economic danger to our country. Remember the (then) Democrat Elon Musk being the toast of the town? No leftie brags about having a Tesla now that Musk has left the plantation.
America’s new credo: build a better mouse trap and then get called a racist.
The left presupposes the evils of capitalism and capitalists to sell its statist/socialist agenda. But the facts are clear: Free-market capitalism is a far more virtuous and moral system than government. We need to separate reality from political rhetoric.
Capitalism did not run up over $30 trillion in national debt, borrowed from future generations, to advance destructive political agendas and buy votes. If we want to talk about what is “moral” and “just,” what our government is doing to us with the debt alone would make the case. But wait – there’s more.
To see the abundance that our historically free-enterprise system has bestowed on us, compare the U.S. to the rest of the world. Travel to any Third World country with a strong central government and a stranglehold on business, and witness the poverty, crime and misery spawned in places like Venezuela, North Korea, Russia and Cuba. And now, San Francisco.
Businesses hire people, help provide health care and other benefits, pay taxes, advertise, support local charities, and build the character of a community. The real heroes of a town are the businesses that advertise on your Little League team’s outfield walls, not some 28-year, swamp-dwelling Congressman you elected.
Businesses are those “evil villains” like oil companies with their 4.7% profit margins that Biden and his cronies criticize and say are somehow the problem. Consider this inconvenient truth: Government takes about 50 cents per gallon for doing nothing – not counting the cost of regulations. Then government taxes the oil companies on their 4.7% profit at 35 percent. And Biden and Jen Psaki, among others in our government, call oil companies greedy?
The way this administration has caused gas prices to go from $1.85 per gallon (when Trump left) to more than $4 per gallon will cause summer vacation problems for most Americans. If a family travels too far from home, it might be cheaper to FedEx their car to their destination.
Politicians speciously claim the moral high ground over American businesses, but we cannot cede that false argument. Businesses are more accountable and moral. They must be, or they fail. In government, if you fail in your mission, you get more funding, and everyone keeps his or her job.
The lesson here is the ability of capitalism to enforce good behavior – quickly. Just ask Tiger Woods. His sponsor, AT&T, cancelled its $35 million a year contract with him when he got into personal trouble with his wife and girlfriends, thus imposing on him the most expensive roaming charge in history.
Ron Hart is a syndicated op-ed humorist, award-winning author, and TV/radio commentator; you can reach him at [email protected] or Twitter @RonaldHart.
Staff Report 