Doing Good Business is the Real Fuel For Doing Good

By Rich Kozlovich

On November 13, 2017 Fred L. Smith, Jr. posted an article entitled, "Does a Market Economy Encourage Altruism?", on the Competitive Enterprise Institute web site.  The thrust of the article dealt with the sale of organs for transplant purposes.  He asks: "Are markets inherently altruistic?"

He explains in the article

"under current law, kidneys can be donated in various ways but may not be bought and sold", which he notes this is a system that fails to meet the demand for kidneys." 

The consequence?  Thousands die unnecessarily. 

He goes on to say:

"a compensated organ transfer system would reduce that deficit" and that "markets encourage altruistic behavior by bringing strangers together, breaking down tribal barriers, and fostering cooperation between groups."  "Markets are compatible with the evolved trait of self-interest"......"but more fundamentally, market transfers are inherently moral because they’re voluntary and mutual. The donor is free to decide within his or her range of welfare-enhancing options. The arranger of the donation must get a good read on the potential donor’s values—what would it take for them to agree? Markets involve interactions between buyers and sellers, requiring each to “read each other” better; they bring parties together into a mutual win/win outcome."

He goes on to state that which is a known component of restictions on activity that should be a personal decision, that being:

 "absent a market, we push demand underground, into black markets where consumers and producers lack legal protection and unscrupulous actors often operate with impunity."

Many years ago I watched one of those Fred Friendly's Ethics in America shows entitled The Anatomy of a Hostile Takeover, and one of my favorite parts of that show was watching Sir James Goldsmith stated "we're mixing up the idea of doing business and doing good".  He went on to say, "doing business is the fuel that allows for doing good, and we need to stop mixing them up". He noted bees doesn't make honey to do good,and has no episodes of soul searching to decide if what they're doing is for the common good or not.

Many years ago I was invited to a world premier in New York City of a documentary in which played a vary small part, mostly as an adviser on pesticides.involving DDT entitled 3Billion and Counting.  while there I met a group from Africa and got into a discussion over pharmacuticals, especially antibiotics. 

Antibiotic resistence is becoming a serious threat to the world, and most are oblivious to that - and that - unlike all the fallacious scares being thrown up by the green/left is a legitimate scare.