Over the past couple of decades I’ve read many stories about those in countries new to democracy being taught the principles and concepts I have always taken for granted. The following is an excerpt from one such story from a February 1997 New York Times article by Sarah Koenig.
In Nadezhda Shilyayeva's first-grade class, the words of the day are ''profit'' and ''inventory.'' As the kindly teacher bounces her pointer along the curly blackboard script, her 26 students at School 139 sing the syllables in unison.
''Now what do we call the money left over in Misha's wallet after all his expenses are paid?'' asked Miss Shilyayeva. ''Profit!'' shouted a pigtailed 7-year-old girl named Dasha. The teacher continued, ''And why does Misha need this profit?''
Silence. Then a small voice ventured, ''So he can'' -- a pause -- ''expand his store?''
''Excellent, Andrusha!'' boomed the teacher's voice.
Koenig was writing about Nadezhda Shilyayeva, an elementary school teacher in Russia after the fall of communism. Shilyayeva was teaching the youth of Russia the skills they would need to be successful in a capitalist economy.
Shilyayeva said, ''If we don't teach children about the market economy from an early age they will end up like us. The older generation knew nothing about economics. We never gave it a thought. As a result, we are like blind kittens bumping into walls, looking for a way out.''
This report from Shilyayeva’s first grade class is over a decade old. Prior to and since then we have witnessed many similar instances of teaching the concepts of capitalism and free enterprise around the world, most recently in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Chamber of Commerce is now planning to spend $100 million to teach free enterprise in another country. Sadly, that country is America.
According to a June 10 press release posted on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website, “The Chamber is leading a sustained, multi-year effort to defend and advance America’s free enterprise values in the face of rapid government growth and attacks by anti-business activists.”
“Supporters and critics alike agree that capitalism is at a crossroads,” said U.S. Chamber President and CEO Thomas J. Donohue. “It’s time to remind all Americans that it was a free enterprise system based on the values of individual initiative, hard work, risk, innovation, and profit that built our great country. We must take immediate action to reaffirm the spirit of enterprise in America.”
Donohue said the campaign is necessary because “those who make or influence economic policy must understand that a productive, competitive private sector is not something they can take for granted…It is built on a system of incentives that offers opportunity and rewards for those who work hard and take risks. Take away those incentives through an avalanche of new rules, restrictions, mandates, and taxes and you will seriously undermine the wealth and job-creating capacity of the nation.”
Americans have been outraged over the past few years by corporate executives taking huge bonuses while their companies experienced losses and layoffs. The news has been filled with stories about mismanagement of employee pensions and the devaluation of company stock. Many politicians have stoked that outrage and pointed to “big business” as the source of all the country’s woes.
Politicians are proposing and enacting legislation that expands government control over private business. Many Americans, whose fear and anger has been stoked by those same politicians, are accepting the changes without question or protest. Many others, however, through “tea party” protests and other methods, are voicing their dissent.
Anti-business forces have successfully painted corporations and corporate leaders as villains that need to be punished and tightly controlled by the government. Much of that success was possible because the face of business has been the high-living, big-city multimillionaire CEO, rather than the mom and pop business owners down the street.
Many of the policies being enacted now have the potential of affecting more than just the big corporations though. Chamber of Commerce spokesperson Tita Freeman, appearing on the Bill LuMaye radio show this week, said the chamber represents 300 million businesses, and of those, 250 are small businesses. Regardless of whether business is big or small, the basic concepts are the same.
Russian teacher Nadezhda Shilyayeva compared her generation who knew nothing of economics to “blind kittens bumping into walls, looking for a way out.” The same could be said of many trying to fix America’s economic problems today. That is why I have to agree with CEO Thomas J. Donohue who called the Chamber of Commerce’s education and ad campaign “one of the most important and necessary initiatives in our nearly 100-year history.”
Lorie Byrd's Bio
Lorie Byrd is a stay-at-home mom from North Carolina with a passion for politics. She is a columnist for Townhall.com and a contributing editor to the Wizbang Blog.com .
Posted
06-18-2009 9:48 AM
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