Hello Dr. Hanson,<\/p>\n
While it’s hard to argue with “be happy day by day”, our current form of capitalism – which Hoover seems to endorse – makes that near impossible.<\/p>\n
Over the last 30 years, Friedman’s nutty idea of maximizing shareholder value as the only responsibility a corporation has, followed by Jack Welch’s popularizing of that nutty idea (which he later regretted) killed the middle and working class.<\/p>\n
And CEO’s are paid not Drucker’s 20x average wages but 335x. Hoover’s free market stance seems ok with all that.<\/p>\n
We need a different form of capitalism for your column to make sense.<\/p>\n
Best,<\/p>\n
D Davidson<\/p>\n
Dear Angry Reader D Davidson,<\/p>\n
Thank you for your note. As I look around the word at the plight of the poor\u2014Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Mexico, Russia\u2014I do not see capitalism as the common denominator of poverty, but rather communism, socialism, statism, and crony capitalism of a sort. Globalization did untold damage to the red-state interior, in that it helped weaken the idea of a nation of common values and citizens and made the global market the final arbiter of social policy.<\/p>\n
Are you a Trump voter, given that your letter seems to echo the concerns, for example, as voiced by Steven Bannon at the Vatican not long ago, who called for an enlightened form of capitalism and an end to transnational elite governance? I really do not care what CEOs or the rich make\u2014most like the Google team, Facebook people, Warren Buffet, and Gates, Inc. are leftist billionaires\u2014as long as the middle classes and poor have good jobs, fairly priced housing and the hope that life will be better for their children. That is no longer the case, largely because an elite has decided that overregulation, utopian environmentalism, and creeping statism is good for everyone else but themselves who have the means to navigate around the consequences of their own ideologies.<\/p>\n
We need to promote cheap energy, manufacturing jobs, vocational education, and begin to honor professions like farming, mining, timber, and construction rather than relegate them to caricatures and ossified entertainment (e.g., Ax-men, ice truckers, tuna boaters, etc.) on cable reality TV.<\/p>\n
I have found among the rich somewhat of a difference between those who \u2018made it\u2019 farming, ranching, building, manufacturing, etc. vs. those who made it even more so through speculation, banking and insurance. The former often seems more real in some sense. As you can see I have a prejudice against the metrosexual Pajama Boy elite who profess one way and live quite another, although I confess it is often stereotyped and unfair.<\/p>\n
Sincerely,<\/p>\n
V Hanson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From an Angry Reader: Hello Dr. Hanson, While it’s hard to argue with “be happy day by day”, our current form of capitalism – which Hoover seems to endorse – makes that near impossible. Over the last 30 years, Friedman’s nutty idea of maximizing shareholder value as the only responsibility a corporation has, followed by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-2Hw","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10358,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/10358-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10386,"position":0},"title":"From An Angry Reader: In\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: In your recent article you are off base, friend. Every day that passes proves Trump to be unfit in so many ways. I figure a Trump believer to be either embarrassingly uninformed or purely hypocritical, willing to push a conservative agenda regardless of flag bearer. No\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13092,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/not-so-angry-reader-jacob\/","url_meta":{"origin":10386,"position":1},"title":"Not-At-All-Angry Reader Jacob","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Professor Hanson, As all good and bad things from the US eventually wash over my small country, Denmark, I just wanted to thank you deeply for your efforts. Please understand that the disasters facing the US at present from identity politics, an almost overtly lying media, leadership that basically\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 13 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 13 comments","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/not-so-angry-reader-jacob\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":388,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-return-of-the-angry-reader\/","url_meta":{"origin":10386,"position":2},"title":"The Return of the Angry Reader","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers In response to a column on Libya one reader wrote: But Hanson's argument here is much bigger than the embassy killings. Except, I'm not entirely clear what the thesis is. Is he saying it was a mistake to go into Libya? Is he saying\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9649,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/9649-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10386,"position":3},"title":"From an Angry Reader: Hello\u2026","author":"Megan Ring","date":"December 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"From an Angry Reader: Hello Mr Hanson. I read your articles on Townhall.com and have a question on something you wrote in Enemies Of Language. In your article you refer to Nazi Germany as having been \u201cright wing.\u201d This is a question that I have been wanting to pose so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10586,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/10586-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":10386,"position":4},"title":"09\/15\/2017 From An Angry Reader:\u2026","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"09\/15\/2017 From An Angry Reader: Angry Reader Sam Davidson Victor, I enjoy reading your articles in the National Review. I never understood why this country has statues that honor people that took up arms against the United States. I do not think there are any statues honoring Lord Cornwallis, General\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Angry Reader"","block_context":{"text":"Angry Reader","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/angry-reader\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12220,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/angry-reader-02-28-20\/","url_meta":{"origin":10386,"position":5},"title":"Angry Reader 02-28-20","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 28, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"From An Angry Reader: Subject: Gray Matter Your articles are so offensively lacking in context, thoughtfulness, and reflection on history--basically simpleminded attack ads-- that I am going to erase the National Review\u2019s bookmark from my browser. And there is no case for Trump any more than there was a case\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10386"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10387,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10386\/revisions\/10387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}