Conservative radio host Michael Medved debunks what he calls “lies” about American business during a talk at Borders in Westlake Jan. 6. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

Creation of wealth good for all, Medved says
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
Published Jan. 27, 2010

The 5 Big Lies About American Business: Combating Smears Against the Free-Market Economy By Michael Medved Publisher: Crown Forum Hardcover, 272 pages $26.99

A year ago, conservative radio talk show host Michael Medved spoke at Border’s at the Promenade at Crocker Park about his book “The 10 Big Lies About America: Combating Destructive Distortions About Our Nation.”

In it, Medved attacked liberal “myths,” such as the view that the Founding Fathers intended America to be a secular nation and that big business hurts the average American.

Earlier this month, he was back at Border’s promoting his newest book, “The 5 Big Lies About American Business: Combating Smears Against the Free-Market Economy.”

The lie that is both the ”dumbest” and “most destructive,” Medved said, is the view that when the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

“The entire Democratic Party platform for about the last 70 years has been based upon the idea that when the rich get richer, the poor get poorer,” said Medved, whose show is aired weekdays from 3 to 6 p.m. on 1420 AM WHK.

Such a viewpoint, Medved said, implies that creating wealth creates poverty.

The viewpoint is also predicated on a belief that the world contains a finite amount of wealth and that humans are not capable of creating new things of value, Medved told an audience of about 100.

But, Medved argued, people can create wealth by inventing and making things people want.

“Business, and the desire to make a profit in business, is not selfish,” Medved said. “It is profoundly humanitarian.”

The recent financial crisis and economic downturn, Medved said, included cases of wealthy people losing money. But poor people also lost out, he noted.

Medved gave the example of an owner of a restaurant who begins losing money. His employees don’t benefit; in fact, Medved said, they lose out if they lose their jobs or have to take a pay cut.

At several points during his talk, Medved used religious arguments to defend the free enterprise system.

“People of faith who actually believe the world was created, and that there is a God who is a creator, tend to believe in the infinite creative power of human beings,” Medved said.

“Secular materialists tend to believe that matter, that wealth, is neither created nor destroyed,” Medved said. “There are just so many coconuts on the island. No new ones can be grown. If somebody has more coconuts, that means somebody else has less.”

This belief, Medved said, becomes destructive when it influences government policy and leads to policies that restrict the progress of rich people.

Governments do have the power to decrease the gap between rich and poor, Medved said, but only by making rich people poorer, not making poor people richer.

Medved invoked the Bible’s 10th commandment — do not covet your neighbor’s goods — in his argument.

A store security mirror reflects people listening to Medved talk at Border's Jan. 6. (West Life photo by Larry Bennet)

“The problem with the liberal agenda is that it is all based on covetousness — the idea that you should not so much feel grateful for what you have and what you can do, but you should feel resentful for what someone else has,” Medved said.

Someone else doing well financially should instead be viewed as a blessing, Medved said.

“If someone else has created a beautiful home or built a successful business, that should be more impetus for you to do precisely the same within your limits of your ability to follow his example,” Medved said. “Because there is no limit to wealth. There is no limit to creativity. It is not a finite resource. It is the one resource that is profoundly infinite.”

The creation of wealth through global trade, Medved said, far outweighs any loss of jobs in this country. Most of the manufacturing jobs lost in America in recent years have been lost not because of globalization but due to automation, he said.

When asked during a question-and-answer session about his opinion on conservative host Glenn Beck, Medved said he was happy for Beck’s success but that he is not good for the conservative movement.

“The problem is just the disregard of the truth too often,” Medved said of Beck. He added that he believed that Beck does not truly care for the conservative cause.

On the Web:

• Michael Medved Official Web site
• "5 Big Lies" book page at Random House
• WHK Radio Web site

Previous West Life articles:

• Lieberman: McCain's experience,
  policies make him the better candidate (Oct. 30, 2008)
• Medved’s new book seeks to dispel liberal myths (Jan. 7, 2009)