Maybe you have seen some of the many reports that a lot of our college students love socialism. They love even Marxism, the seedbed for socialism. Many hate filthy capitalism. Just as the Pope does.
This is understandable. Many university profs love the two. They preach-teach accordingly.
Carnegie Mellon Institute is openly celebrating Karl Marx’s 200th birthday. Various profs have sung his praises in publicized lectures.
A few matters come to mind. One is that the lecturers sang no dirges for the 100 million Marxian corpses. That is how many folks perished under the savagery of Marxian-Communist dictators. Too small a number to deal with, I guess.
Nor did they note the many experiments with socialism that have crashed miserably. Venezuela is the latest failed experiment.
Another matter is that we are hard pressed to find universities celebrating capitalism. Hiss, boo. Capitalism is an enormous target on campuses and among the academic elite.
This leads to a reminder: Universities are giants of capitalism. When they raise their flutes of bubbly to Marxism they are downing the swill of capitalism.
Carnegie Mellon has over $2 billion invested in stocks and bonds and income-producing real estate. The institute could not operate without the income from these investments. What filthy capitalists!
Like all schools, they beg donations to add to their endowment fund. Many of the donations come from filthy capitalists. They donate filthy shares of stock to the school.
The school owe its birth to Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon. Carnegie was one of the wealthiest men of all time. He made his money in that filthy steel industry. Mellon made his in banking and other businesses. Then he turned politician. As Secretary of the Treasury he famously slashed tax rates for companies and individuals. Hiss, boo.
When various pollsters ask students to define capitalism few can. They typically jabber about consumerism or big companies that screw the workers. I’m sure they don’t realize how much their schools rely on capitalism.
The Pope’s remarks on the system are along the same lines as the students’. I suppose he must know his church is one of the most powerful capitalists on earth.
In all of this, nobody celebrates the capitalism of the entrepreneurs. Our economy would be nothing without them.
Roberto decides to open a Mexican restaurant. He saves money – capital – to fund it. He also borrows money – capital – from his uncle. From profits, he saves more capital to expand.
He borrows capital again to open a second restaurant. And a third.
He creates shares in the growing business. And sells them to raise more capital to expand. When he hits 100 stores he sells shares to the public. For a few hundred million in capital. We can all buy the shares on the NASDQ.
He is a capitalist at every stage of the growth of his business. The woman who borrows money from her mom to start a hair salon is a capitalist. She uses capital as Carnegie did. She invests it in hopes of a return.
Her mom and Roberto’s uncle are participants in capitalism. They invest their capital hoping for returns. They don’t raise their hand at the sound of that word. But they are capitalists.
Roberto sends his daughter to Carnegie Mellon. The school hits him up for big donations for its endowment. He donates millions in valuable stock of his Roberto Mexicano Company.
The school dumps the stock into its endowment fund. The school draws money from the fund every year. It spends some on the salaries of its professors. Those professors who praise Marxism and condemn capitalism.
The university also gives money from its investments to students. In the form of scholarships. Many of these students fall in love with socialism. They demonstrate against capitalism. On the quads that capitalism built.
Do you ever wonder what Marx would make of all this? He scoffed that “The last capitalist we hang shall be the one who sold us the rope.” I can’t find any quotes of his about bubbly.
From Tom…as in Morgan.
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