[marketcorrection] Don Boudreaux: Empty and Mindless

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Posted by Don Boudreaux:
Empty and Mindless
http://marketcorrection.powerblogs.com/posts/1209998506.shtml


   17 November 2007
   Editor, Baltimore Sun
   To the Editor:
   Although de rigueur among "progressives," Jim Salvucci is mistaken to
   describes bourgeois values as "empty" and consumerism as "mindless"
   (Letters, November 17). Bourgeois values encourage the substantive and
   mindful traits of hard work, sobriety, thrift, honesty, and
   self-reliance - all of which earn their practitioners the ability over
   time to enjoy greater material comforts and amusements.
   What is truly empty is the value that counsels A to live off of the
   wealth given to him by B and which B confiscated from C. And what is
   truly mindless is the notion that society progresses as greater
   numbers of us live as "A"s or as "B"s, and all the while thinking of
   "C"s as being nothing more than contemptible cows to be milked for the
   "general good."
   Sincerely,
   Donald J. Boudreaux
   Chairman, Department of Economics
   George Mason University