Taken from a review of Tyler Cowen’s Big Business: A Love Letter to an American Anti-Hero –
It’s both more and less than a lack of gratitude. Big Rock Candy Mountain would not impress her.
I wonder about her reaction should she ever hear of Iron Lungs, or Polio vaccine. Or, for that matter, food stores.
“Dina, here’s a free, live sheep. It’s your food and clothing supplement for the next quarter. Otherwise, you just get subsistence quantities of basic protein paste and three yards of poor quality burlap salvaged from potato sacks.
Other people’s labor supplied the sheep (as well as the protein paste and burlap) so you can learn to how to butcher, preserve meat, tan hides, and sew. And to make your own knives, saws, sewing tools, refrigerator, and electricity. People are literally paying you to learn existentially valuable skills.
After you’ve acquired those skills, you’ll need to work on how to raise sheep. Society can’t afford this gift indefinitely.
After that, you could look into creating a global transportation system to ship any excess sheep to Venezuela. We hear people there would literally pay for them.”
Since you shared Dina’s economic genius with me I’ve found myself quoting her too often. I just can’t resist the laughter that ensues.
It would be more humorous if it hadn’t attracted hundreds of thousands of ‘likes.’
Dina is not alone in her ignorance and ingratitude.