Schumpeter's Gales of Creative Destruction

Richard Rahn hit the nail on the head in his Washington Times op/ed earlier this week:

The "real do-gooders," in the sense that their actions really do alleviate poverty and make life better for their fellow man, are entrepreneurs who create real jobs, goods and services that make our lives better, and those political leaders who have reduced unnecessary regulations and strengthened property rights, such as Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Mart Laar (the former Estonian prime minister who led the reforms in his country)...

Governments cannot create jobs; they can only destroy jobs in the private sector by increasing taxation on the productive to create a "new government job." Many of those who attack Wal-Mart or other business people for not paying "high enough" wages, or the rich for not paying "enough" in taxes, have never created a productive job in their lives, nor have they ever had the imagination or energy to create any new good or service to make our lives better. Yet, they often refer to themselves and are indeed called "do-gooders." What a perversion of the language.