To Grads Interested In Public Service

IBD Editorials ^ | May 28, 2010 | The great THOMAS SOWELL

[Kaslin]

Every year about this time, big-government liberals stand up in front of college commencement crowds across the country and urge the graduates to do the noblest thing possible — become big-government liberals.

That isn't how they phrase it, of course. Commencement speakers express great reverence for "public service," as distinguished from narrow private "greed." There is usually not the slightest sign of embarrassment at this self-serving celebration of the kinds of careers they have chosen — over and above the careers of others who merely provide us with the food we eat, the homes we live in, the clothes we wear and the medical care that saves our health and our lives.

What I would like to see is someone with the guts to tell those students: Do you want to be of some use and service to your fellow human beings? Then let your fellow human beings tell you what they want — not with words, but by putting their money where their mouth is.

You want to see more people have better housing? Build it! Become a builder or developer — if you can stand the sneers and disdain of your classmates and professors who regard the very words as repulsive.

Would you like to see more things become more affordable to more people? Then figure out more efficient ways of producing things or more efficient ways of getting those things from the producers to the consumers at a lower cost.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

If you really want to be of service to others, then let them decide what is a service by whether they choose to spend their hard-earned money for it.

Doesn't it just frost your cookies to see how how easy a master makes it look?

Why can't I make points that succinctly!

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

As always a great article from Dr Sowell. But it was Nikola Tesla and his partner George Westinghouse who brought us electricity, far more than Thomas Edison did.

“Tesla was not exactly a partner and fought like hell to get all of his money from Westinghouse.”

Tesla was no businessman at all. He was a somewhat eccentric and very brilliant engineering genius. The world still runs on Tesla’s ideas, and the future will include more of his ideas that have not yet been realized. Edison was a very hardworking inventor and very talented businessman; but he was no Tesla.

I think that the young person who wants to be an inventor thinks of Tesla as a model - but in reality the real inventing happens when you figure out how to make a practical light bulb, and then found General Electric to make the bulbs, and Consolidated Edison electric power company to deliver power to the bulbs you sold the customer.

Just coming up with the idea of electric light is not that big a deal. Just like it used to be said that it was a dull week when nobody announced a new technology that was better than the transistor.

[tanknetter]

What I would like to see is someone with the guts to tell those students: Do you want to be of some use and service to your fellow human beings? Then let your fellow human beings tell you what they want — not with words, but by putting their money where their mouth is.

Not one of his better pieces, imho, as he's speaking too high level and too broadly. I know a LOT of public servants who are "of some use and service to (their) fellow human beings" by putting their lives on the line as cops and firefighters.

[whence911]

It takes the two, the idea and the practical application. Think about the AC and DC issue. Where would Edison have been with just a light bulb and the wrong type of energy distribution?

[whence911]

http://www.amazon.com/Wizard-Nikola-Biography-Genius-Citadel/dp/0806519606/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275139323&sr=1-4

Wizard, one of my favorite books.

[SupplySider]

I don’t think there is a clearer thinker in the world on social issues than Prof. Sowell.

[dsc]

Ditto. I guess you’ve read some of his books.