Mike Rowe: Coronavirus Crisis Could Be 'Most Compelling Case for Capitalism That We've Seen in Our Lifetime'
Mike Rowe has spent a career teaching Americans about the important things in life.
On Fox News “Fox & Friends” Monday, the former “Dirty Jobs” star said the coronavirus crisis could teach the world about one of the United States’ most important contributions to it — the inventiveness and adaptability of American capitalism.
While leftist critics such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plead with President Donald Trump to assume virtually dictatorial powers to deal with the crisis, Rowe pointed out that American businesses are stepping up already.
After co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Rowe what “corporate America” should be doing, Rowe — an author and veteran television host — pointed to what’s going on around the country already.
“Obviously, this is not a — it shouldn’t be — a political thing. And I don’t want to make it a political thing,” he said.
“But my answer to your question in general terms is, this virus, we’re going to see what capitalism is really all about.
“We have these big conversations about what direction the country is headed and what direction the country ought to be headed. This is a chance, unlike anything I’ve ever seen, for corporate America to step up and do what the government simply can’t do.”
Rowe cited companies such as GM – which last week announced plans to ramp up production of ventilators — and 3M — which the financial website StreetInsider reported has doubled its production of respirators – as examples of capitalism responding.
“We have these big conversations about what direction the country is headed and what direction the country ought to be headed,” he said.
“This is a chance, unlike anything I’ve ever seen, for corporate America to step up and do what the government simply can’t do.
“Obviously, the government has the primary role in this, but I don’t think they can do it alone.”
Check out the interview below.
As is usual with any Rowe appearance, the whole thing is worth watching, but the Kilmeade question comes about the 1:25 mark.
Literally anyone familiar with the history of the country’s greatest achievements knows that it was the country’s strong capitalistic structure – one that rewards efficiency and advancement – that has made it possible for the United States to overcome its challenges.
“I’m looking at distilleries who are now making hand sanitizers,” Rowe told the “Fox & Friends” crew.
“It’s big and it’s small. It’s micro and it’s macro.
“It’s everybody doing what they can in a way that I think could ultimately make about the most compelling case for capitalism that we’ve seen in our lifetimes.”
Mike Rowe on corporate responsibility: “It’s big and it’s small, it’s micro, it’s macro. It’s everybody doing what they can in a way that I think could ultimately make about the most compelling case for capitalism that we’ve seen in our lifetime.” https://t.co/jFQ5ZADWKD #COVID19
— John Gravois (@Grav1) March 23, 2020
Maybe it will be a lesson new generations will learn the way their predecessors did.
It was the U.S. military that defeated the Axis powers on the battlefield in World War II, but it was the world’s greatest industrial plant that supplied the weapons and gear to do it. (And many, many companies and millions of American workers made a lot of money doing it.)
The Cold War was won by a succession of American presidents – most notably Ronald Reagan, of course – but it was the enduring, undeniable economic prowess of the United States as a whole that made their determination possible.
The United States is powerful because it is wealthy. And it is wealthy, fundamentally, because of the capitalistic system that so many ignorant souls on the left despise, even as they enjoy its fruits.
Too much reporting in the liberal media took an unseemly glee in noting when the coronavirus crisis drove the stock market below its “Trump Bump,” the point where it started its phenomenal run during his presidency. Do liberals ever ask themselves where the market — or the American economy — would be if the country were four years into a Hillary Clinton administration rather than a remarkable period of prosperity?
It shouldn’t be surprising, but it’s still dismaying that the vast majority of social media responses to Rowe were negative, often foul-mouthed, and spewed, doubtless, by exactly the kind of contemptible fools who are too blind to see the reality of the world they’re living in — the world that’s a testament to American capitalism.
As Rowe, an apostle of common sense, put it near the end of his interview:
“There are two primary things that are keeping us sane at the moment. … The people who are bringing us the stuff we need, and the technology that allows us to remain connected as we are right now.”
Both of those things are products – directly and incontrovertibly – of the American capitalistic system. Yet ignorant commenters from the left are using that very technology to criticize Rowe for singing capitalism’s praises.
Rowe is right. Capitalism is already making a compelling case for itself. It’s what’s giving the country the tools to hold the Wuhan coronavirus at bay.
And when it defeats the latest threat, it will have proven itself again.
The nation’s many benighted leftists will no doubt miss the lesson – as they’ve missed every other lesson Rowe has taught in his career.
But it’s a good bet the rest of the world will be watching – and learning.
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