From: imbibe@mindspring.com   
      
   Steve Forbes talks at Notre Dame about morality of capitalism   
   by Kevin Allen, Nov. 7, 2015, South Bend Tribune   
      
   Pop culture doesn't usually portray capitalism as a righteous system.   
      
   Consider all the businessmen who are villains in movies and    
   TV shows. It's a long list — from the jowly fat cat Mr. Potter    
   in "It's a Wonderful Life" to the skeletal power-plant owner    
   Mr. Burns in "The Simpsons."   
      
   Steve Forbes, the publisher & 2-time presidential candidate,    
   noted during a speech Thursday at Notre Dame that, in movies,    
   businessmen end more lives than serial killers do.   
      
   "The idea of having the word 'morality' associated with    
   capitalism, free markets, free enterprise sounds a little    
   strange because capitalism certainly in popular culture is    
   never seen as a moral system," Forbes said. "It's seen as    
   being based on greed. It puts profits before people. Markets    
   are cold, heartless and hard. The strong crush the weak. The    
   rich get richer and poor always struggle."   
      
   But in real life, Forbes said, capitalism is moral.   
      
   Free markets, he said, promote cooperation among people of    
   different backgrounds. They turn shortage into abundance,    
   luxuries into commodities.   
      
   And the true source of capital, he added, is the human mind —    
   the ingenuity that can take something like oil and make it valuable.   
      
   "Unfortunately, some professors still say economics is the    
   study of the allocation of scarce resources," Forbes told the    
   roughly 250 people in the audience at the Hesburgh Library's    
   Carey Auditorium.   
      
   "That is utterly boring. Your heartbeat almost goes dead.    
   There's nothing sexy in that. It turns off even nerds," he    
   said, drawing laughs from the crowd. "What economics is really    
   about is creating resources."   
      
   He asked, "What is the difference between us living in the    
   world today and people living in the Stone Age? ... The    
   difference between us and them is we have more knowledge."   
      
   Then what is the purpose of profit? Why should anyone charge    
   more than what they need to cover expenses?   
      
   Forbes said profit is more than just an incentive. A dynamic    
   economy not only creates new resources, it destroys old ways    
   of doing things. As a magazine publisher in the digital age,    
   he has seen that creative destruction first-hand.   
      
   "You need profit to replace what you destroyed," he explained.    
   "You need profit to finance the huge advances that come with    
   that creativity."   
      
   Of course, there are Ponzi schemes, price gougers and polluters,    
   but Forbes said certain examples of greed don't undermine    
   capitalism as a whole.   
      
   "This kind of misbehavior did not come with Adam Smith,"    
   he said. "It's been with us since our creation."   
      
   Forbes also took took the position that religion and faith    
   are the reasons so many scientific advances have occurred in    
   Europe and North America.   
      
   "This is very politically incorrect, but since I'm not    
   running for anything I don't care," he said. "The Judeo-   
   Christian heritage opened up the pursuit of curiosity and    
   experimentation in a way no other faith did."   
      
   Forbes' speech, titled "The Morality of Capitalism," was    
   sponsored by the Notre Dame Chapter of Young Americans for    
   Freedom, the Potenziani Program in Constitutional Studies and    
   the Tocqueville Program for Inquiry into Religion and Public Life.   
      
   https://www.southbendtribune.com/story/business/2015/11/07/steve   
   forbes-talks-at-notre-dame-about-morality-of-capitalism/46218223/   
      
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