Media Bias

Yesterday I watched Meredith Vieira -- co-anchor of the "Today Show"(NBC) -- interview billionaire Don Trump regarding his new book designed to help people build real wealth. Mr. Trump expressed his concern that America is producing two classes of people -- the rich and the poor while the middle class is disappearing.

After hearing one specific comment by Ms. Vieira I forgot about the rest of the interview since she clearly displayed her biased world view when she said (paraphrasing here):

"......now Mr. Trump, if people use your advice in this book to build wealth for themselves then that means less wealth for you........................"

WRONG!!

Ms. Vieira clearly displayed she has a Malthusian view of the world -- meaning she is in the school of thought that the economy is a static pie that we all must fight over to get our "slice of the pie" . That is a negative, small-minded, doomsday scenario she has but perhaps an even greater concern was that I did not hear Mr. Trump challenge Ms. Vieira's thinking.

While Ms. Vieira describes her political views as being "in the middle" (http://newsbusters.org/node/5364) she clearly needs to expand her reading list to include some positive, growth is good for everyone economists such as Julian Simon. Ms. Vieira needs to quit thinking we live in a world like the one created in the film, "Logan's Run", where the population is controlled via "renewal" (public execution in reality) at age 30 due to society having limited resources.

As the Sandman learned in Logan's Run the "surface world" is not a wasteland but a land of opportunity -- so too does Ms. Vieira need to escape from her class warfare thinking. Here is a suggested reading list for her to consider since I know she is a regular reader of my blog :-)

"Bound to Lead" by Joseph Nye (also great for anyone thinking the USA is declining)

www.cato.org

www.heartland.org

www.heritage.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Lincoln_Simon

Economic growth is good and helps all classes of people and since taxes and regulation stymie growth then it is clear that government is a contributing factor to the poverty of nations.

Who wants to be a millionaire?

Todd