Fearless Money

Business is a noble calling. There, I said it. For some reason that is a non-mainstream way to think, but it is a truth that I’ve only recently come to terms with.

I certainly haven’t always felt that way. I can recall a time in the not too distant past when I agreed with my fellow “downtrodden white collar workers”, arguing that executives should be limited to some set multiple of the wages paid their lowest level employees. The only way to support such a foolhardy notion is to demonize business people, arguing that they are merely exploiting people, that they are basically parasites.

I certainly put other, more obviously selfless folks above business people in the moral-scale-of-worthiness I’d constructed in my head. Firemen, doctors (the good ones, not plastic surgeons), and teachers all seemed infinitely more important to society than businessmen.

What I never asked myself was, “who is going to pay the salary for these people?” Who will contribute to the volunteer fire department? Who will enable the volunteers to feed and clothe their families so that they may spend time in charity work?

Business, that’s who. Government can’t do it, at least not by itself, as it is also supported through the industry and sacrifices of business people.

In the last century, the U.S. has gone from a primarily agrarian economy to a vastly more interdependent and commerce oriented one. Where in the past, the basic supporter of society might reasonably have been seen to be a farmer, I argue that today it is the business people.

We are the bedrock of society. We provide the base that allows others to carry out their own passions and lives. This is no Objectivist praise of selfishness, this is the simple observation that we are the engine that drives the modern world. Without us, there can be no noble teachers or doctors.

It’s not just a noble calling, its a full on spiritual one. Serving society with every ounce of energy at my disposal, I am proud to be a businessman.

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