One of the earliest Mises Daily articles may be the best. Scrooge Defended by Michael Levin should be used each time Scrooge is invoked to vilify capitalism.
For twoconsecutive years, New York Times economic columnist Paul Krugman invoked Scrooge as if no counterargument exists. It does.
Levin shows the argument made by Dickens are not much different than the arguments made today against capitalism. Emotional appeals that crumble when analyzed.
In his effort to vilify a capitalist, Dickens created a solid example of how a capitalist benefits himself and his community. Scrooge changes due to being tormented by three ghosts, not due to a well reasoned argument.
If the opportunity arises, defend Scrooge from his many critics. The intellectual rebellion against tyranny can be fought on many fronts, but this Christmas season, defend the indenfendable, defend Scrooge. In other words, defend freedom.
Scrooge was a statist! He told the private charity group that there were already state workhouses paid for by his taxes, meaning that he should not feel obliged to be charitable.
In short, Scrooge was a parody of contemporary people who don’t believe in charity, but rather think that as long as their money is taken under compulsion and given to anybody else, their own initiative is not required.
I know this last statement will be silly, but I have taught underprivileged slum children, while none of the Jawaharlal Nehru University “Leftists” and social democrats I know of have ever done a single charitable work in their lives, and have only attended air conditioned conferences where they complain about “neoliberalism”.
He told the private charity group that there were already state workhouses paid for by his taxes, meaning that he should not feel obliged to be charitable.
Well, those State workhouses must not be efficient enough if people are still looking for private charities.
Ah, but as we hear about the complaints regarding private schools, they cause public schools to become inefficient by causing them to lose revenue and competition to private players, and thus, as all public-school-advocates say, there can either be only public schools or only private schools, but nothing in between!
So if Scrooge were even more statist, he would say that the private charity group is ruining the work of state workhouses, and thus private charity must be abolished in order to allow state workhouses to become more efficient!
He told the private charity group that there were already state workhouses paid for by his taxes, meaning that he should not feel obliged to be charitable.