The productive vs. the unproductive: Walter E. Williams

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Wednesday, April 27, 2005 | Walter E. Williams

[JohnHuang2]

"The Greatest Century That Ever Was: 25 Miraculous Trends of the Past 100 Years" is the appropriate title of a 1999 article authored by Stephen Moore and the late Julian L. Simon and published by the Washington-based Cato Institute. Let's highlight some of the phenomenal progress Americans made during the 20th century.

During that century, life expectancy rose from 47 to 77 years of age. Deaths from infectious diseases fell from 700 to 50 per 100,000 of the population. Major killer diseases such as tuberculosis, polio, typhoid fever and whooping cough were virtually eliminated. Infant mortality plummeted.

The 20th century saw unprecedented material gains as well. Controlling for inflation, household assets rose from $6 trillion to $41 trillion between 1945 and 1998. Today, more than 98 percent of American homes have a telephone, electricity and a flush toilet. More than 70 percent of Americans own a car, a VCR, a microwave, air conditioning, cable TV, and a washer and dryer. In 1900, no homes had the modern conveniences of today. Today's poor Americans have choices that yesterday's millionaires could have only dreamt of, such as cell phones, computers and color TV sets. Added to all this progress, most adults have twice as much leisure time as their turn-of-the-20th-century counterparts.

You say, "Williams, it would take an idiot to deny the human progress Americans made during the 20th century. What's your point?" The productive people who made this progress possible are often painted as villains. I'm talking about the innovators and the risk-takers, in a word – entrepreneurs. Today's heroes are often seen as the people who attack entrepreneurs – among them lawyers, politicians, media people, leftist organizations, college professors and others who often contribute little or nothing to human progress. My colleague, Thomas Sowell, calls the entrepreneurs, scientists and inventors the "doers" and their attackers the "talkers."

The talkers who attack the doers are glib and can turn clever phrases and thereby trick the gullible and uninformed, whether it's the general public through the mass media or judges and juries. For example, even if a particular drug has massive benefits, like saving tens of thousands of lives or reducing the suffering of tens of thousands of people, but a few people suffer or die, the talkers are ready to crucify the company. Their first charge is corporate greed.

The attack on the pharmaceutical industry is particularly vicious, led by lawyers looking to make a financial killing like their colleagues who sued the tobacco industry and Microsoft. One target of today's talkers is Merck drug company, the maker of Vioxx, because for some individuals it poses an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. But for other individuals, it is safe and effective for pain relief from arthritis. The operational question for any drug is whether its benefits exceed its costs – not whether some people are harmed. Moreover, some patients would willingly accept the risk of heart attack and stroke to obtain relief from painful, crippling arthritis. Why should the FDA or the plaintiff's bar prevent them from doing so?

If we developed the practice of removing products from the market because some people are harmed by them, we might starve to death. Anaphylaxis is a sudden, severe, potentially fatal reaction that some people have to foods such as milk, wheat, soy, peanuts, fish, shellfish and eggs. Each year, food-induced anaphylaxis sends about 30,000 people to hospital emergency rooms and about 200 of them die. Since many people are harmed by these food items, should they be removed from our supermarket shelves? If not, why not?

The next time we hear a talker attacking a doer, we just might ask: What have you done to further human progress?

[metesky]

Let's highlight some of the phenomenal progress Americans made during the 20th century.

I don't think people give enough thought to just how far we've come since 1900. I think of my father (1907 - 2002) and all the changes he saw in the world and the way we live.

But the Old Man was always careful to note that a change in material conditions did not mean that human nature had changed, that humans were still the same imperfect beings.

Considered a poor man by most, I know I live better than most European heads of state lived a mere 200 years ago.

[Pipeline]

Just simple advances have contributed greatly to our increased longevity. The availability of clean drinking water distribution and sanitary waste disposal systems made a huge difference. For example: London circa 1850 with the contamination of the local water wells by the raw sewage from the Thames river causing Cholera outbreaks. Not to mention the stench. And for all the whining about exhaust emissions from cars, think about the methane produced by 275 million horses on the streets of America if there were no cars not to mention the disposal of the road apples they leave behind!

[libertylover]

My colleague, Thomas Sowell, calls the entrepreneurs, scientists and inventors the "doers" and their attackers the "talkers."

I call them the "makers" and the "takers".

[Graybeard58]

I call them the "makers" and the "takers".

I like that.

I refer to the tax payers and the tax takers.

[7thson]

And I sincerely believe that these changes occurred because of the existance of the United States. It may not have been the US that did all the inventions and progress but the mere fact that a country existed that allowed the freedom to experiment and create, enabled us to leap ahead.

It has been 229 years since the Declaration of Independence declared this country to be a free nation. Up to that time, the concept of men ruling themselves was virtually unheard of. Taking the comcept of travel, how do we get around today. We can drive, take a bus, take a train, take a plane, or go across the oceans in ships powered by massive engines. How did people travel 229 years ago. They either walked, rode a horse, a wagon pulled by horses, or depended on the wind to cross the oceans. What took days now takes hours and what took hours now takes minutes.

In 1547, how did people travel? Basically the same way as in 1776. Go back another 229 years to 1318. Basically the same way. Another 229 to 1089. Basically the same way.

The fact that someplace existed which allowed men to act in freedom has moved the world along at a tremendous pace. Whether it has been for the good of society is another discussion.

[Desdemona]

bookmark for later

[expat_panama]

...The next time we hear a talker attacking a doer, we just might ask: What have you done to further human progress?....

Sounds good Mr. Williams, try living by it.

I hear you all the time bad mouthing American education.  Now granted, you may be just referring to your own personal experience where you or the institution that employs you fails in its mission.  So speak for yourself because the study you sited had pages --a whole section on advances in US in education.

Williams is spot on when he sticks to what he understands, like economics, technology, and production. 

When it comes to one of Americas most valuable contributions to human civilization, Williams appears to collapse into a mindless bigotry against his own kind-- but it's probably not what it appears.   Rather than self loathing, IMO he's just piling on with pundits from the left and the right.

The right hates education  because so much of it is run by the government so they blame educators for the sins of bureaucrats.  The left bad mouths education so they can raise our taxes to buy more.  On this point they agree --and they're both wrong.

[gr8eman]

THE RIGHT HATES EDUCATION????
Think about that for a while! The people who home school their children are the biggest self-loathers....NOT!

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

life expectancy rose from 47 to 77 years of age. Deaths from infectious diseases fell from 700 to 50 per 100,000 of the population. Major killer diseases such as tuberculosis, polio, typhoid fever and whooping cough were virtually eliminated. Infant mortality plummeted. The 20th century saw unprecedented material gains as well. Controlling for inflation, household assets rose from $6 trillion to $41 trillion between 1945 and 1998. Today, more than 98 percent of American homes have a telephone, electricity and a flush toilet. More than 70 percent of Americans own a car, a VCR, a microwave, air conditioning, cable TV, and a washer and dryer. In 1900, no homes had the modern conveniences of today. Today's poor Americans have choices that yesterday's millionaires could have only dreamt of, such as cell phones, computers and color TV sets. Added to all this progress, most adults have twice as much leisure time as their turn-of-the-20th-century counterparts.

I live better than most European heads of state lived a mere 200 years ago.

I like the example of Queen Victoria (1819-1901). In her lifetime she had fabulous wealth, land, jewels - but only the very beginnings of modern health care. She herself lived over 80 years, but the last twenty years or so were as an unhappy widow. And she had essentially nothing made of plastic and nothing that ran on gasoline or electricity - including phones or computers.

The further point of comparison, of course, would be the antebellum southern slave owner - none of whom would have been a bit better off than Queen Victoria. So the modern American secretary is better off than Queen Victoria or any of the southern planters whom we now scorn for ruthless greed.

[kevkrom]

I know it won't happen, but I'd vote Williams/Sowell or Sowell/Williams in 2008 in a heartbeat...

[Sgt_Schultze]

Your scenario is disgusting to contemplate. But how different a country we would have if such as you speak existed. In order to create so many "road apples" the horse population would consume vastly more food than his human master. Our economy would ever have matured toward manufacturing if all available land was employed growing horse fuel.

[PGalt]

Producers vs. parasites (including much of government).

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Sounds good Mr. Williams, try living by it.

I hear you all the time bad mouthing American education. Now granted, you may be just referring to your own personal experience where you or the institution that employs you fails in its mission. So speak for yourself because the study you sited had pages --a whole section on advances in US in education.

Thanks for posting the link to the pdf file containing the Stephen Moore piece Williams cited. It was an interesting read.

As to the graph you posted from there, the one thing it shows for sure is that America's high schools and colleges are awarding more diplomas and degrees than they used to. As to whether that is due to anything more than grade inflation - and it may well be, considering that you gotta answer more questions on the SAT than your grandfather would have had to to get the same SAT "score" - that is not an issue on which that graph sheds any light.

And as to the "pages --a whole section on advances in US in education" which you allude to, I'm afraid that my own education isn't good enough to have enabled me to find anything else in the entire pdf file which does shed any light on that issue. Other than the fact that women are getting more degrees of all sorts than they used to, I didn't spot anything else on education at all. Certainly nothing that indicates that people now graduating from high school even know who George Washington was . . .

[Logophile]

The right hates education  because so much of it is run by the government so they blame educators for the sins of bureaucrats.  The left bad mouths education so they can raise our taxes to buy more.  On this point they agree --and they're both wrong.

You may be confusing education with schooling. They are not the same.

My grandfather's formal schooling ended in the eight grade. Yet in those eight years he acquired a better education than the average university graduate does today. He could quote Shakespeare; he knew poetry; he could read and write and compute.

Today, I teach at the university, where we provide the best remedial education money can buy. When students enter my freshman course after twelve years of public schooling, I cannot assume that they know anything about anything. Grammar, spelling, punctuation? Those things are largely unknown. History? Anything that happened before they were born is a mystery. Mathematics? Take away their sophisticated graphing calculators, and most are lost.

[The Great Yazoo]

...the study you sited had pages --a whole section on advances in US in education...

The graph you cited demonstrates nothing more than ever increased profligacy in the granting of high school diplomas and college degrees. In fact, the page you got the graph from stated "The quantity (though perhaps not the quality) of schooling received by Americans has risen in almost every decade of this century."

There is no doubt of the decline of the quality of education in America. For one example of what a high school diploma used to mean, consider John Henry "Doc" Holliday. Holliday, more famous for his gambling and gunfighting ability, as a child studied Greek, Latin, and French. As an adult, he remained fluent in Latin. Where did this refined and erudite fellow obtain his education. In Civil War-ravaged, ignorant, and backwoods Valdosta, Georgia.

The right hates education because so much of it is run by the government so they blame educators for the sins of bureaucrats.

In a government-run system, the educators ARE bureaucrats. If educators want to free themselves of bureaucracy, the only alternative is to free themselves of government.

[TexasCajun]

I like the term:

Consumer Non-Producer!

[The Great Yazoo]

not to mention the disposal of the road apples they leave behind!

American ingenuity put those "road apples" to productive use! Manure for fertilizer. Offal for fuel. It's only in modern day America that such valuable materials are considered "waste."

[LiveBait]

"I like the example of Queen Victoria (1819-1901). In her lifetime she had fabulous wealth, land, jewels - but only the very beginnings of modern health care. She herself lived over 80 years, but the last twenty years or so were as an unhappy widow. And she had essentially nothing made of plastic and nothing that ran on gasoline or electricity - including phones or computers."

I'm not necessarily attacking the concept of progress: I am certainly glad I live now, rather than 100 or 200 years ago, and agree that material conditions have improved greatly. But I have to wonder if plastic, phones and computers-and in fact most of the stuff we have collect-actually make our lives that much happier. Take, for instance, TV: TV is great, and is probably the most pervasive piece of modern technology (other than cars) in modern life... but are people who own tvs necessarily that much happier than people who own books?

[expat_panama]

nothing more than ever increased profligacy in the granting of high school diplomas and college degrees

You might be able to help me out with this-- why is it that so many people say stuff like this even though personally they know it's not true?   

Everyone -- you included-- knows that when we want say, a top notch Doctor to do brain surgery on a family member that we'd want one with a medical degree from John Hopkins and not one from Botswana U.    How about maybe you're head-hunting for a high-tech start up and you're comparing resumes from one guy with a PhD specialty in Integrated Circuits with MIT versus one from Oxford, England.   We all know why there are so many more people in other countries with US decrees than there are Americans who went to all the trouble to get their schooling overseas-- it's because everyone knows an American education degree is BETTER.

The only think I can't figure out is why is it that so many freepers who are on the ball in their businesses, and who turn right around and bash the US like idiots.  I already know why liberals are America bashers, they are idiots.