“You liberals defend the rich, the big businessmen.” That is usually the beginning of the recriminations that those of us who declare ourselves openly liberal, defenders of the free market, of the reduction of the size of the State, and of the freedom of each one to follow their own interest, in the way that Adam Smith suggested.
It is true that, on the road to economic freedom, large companies have sneaked up on us that, in the purest mercantilist spirit, have exchanged favors and privileges with the State, to the detriment of the sovereign consumer and degrading healthy competition.
The one that for authors like John Stuart Mill It serves as a stimulus for the improvement of people and to enrich society, all of it. The one known as “crony capitalism”or crony capitalism, is an evil that explains part of the confusion in society when it sees how some simple profiteers declare themselves black-legged liberals.
Despite this, those of us who have spent years defending that the company is the natural generator of employment, that it is not possible to continue penalizing savings and investment and favoring indebtedness, we have been supported by articles such as the one published by Javier G. Jorrín this weekend, showing that it is the large company that has pulled the most get out of the crisis. Not only companies that employ more than 500 people have sustained employment better than smaller ones. They are also having a more intense recovery.
That Spain is a country of SMEs and micro-enterprises is a fact. That the self-employed are the most crushed by the legislation of the social-communist government despite being the refuge of many of the workers laid off throughout the different crises, is also a fact. And it is also a fact that small entrepreneurs have no incentives to grow, that is, to hire more employees, increase its production, expand its production scale. Taxes are a big hassle.
That the self-employed are the most crushed by the legislation of the social-communist government, it is a fact
The cost of hiring and firing workers, too. I am aware of unpopular that it turns out to speak clearly about the cost of dismissal when we have a number of unemployed that is still too high. But if the company is the institution that generates sustainable employment, adapted to the current times, then it is necessary to consider what problems employers have when hiring.
The same John Stuart Mill, who ardently defended the legalization of unions, also defended the freedom of association of entrepreneurs in the legal forms that seem best to them. The reason, in both cases, was to allow both employers and employees to organize themselves to better achieve their goals.
The main explanation of the behavior of our society is a double bias. On the one hand, we are convinced that the entrepreneur is, by definition, selfish. On the other hand, we think that the big businessmen, who are rich, are bad for being rich. Despite the belief that it is a bias promoted by the Christian mentality, we forget that, although it is more difficult for a rich man to go to the Kingdom of Heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, according to Genesis, Abraham was very rich, like King Solomon, or those who supported Jesus himself.
We think that the big businessmen, who are rich, are bad for being rich
However, at the beginning of the aforementioned article, the journalist feels the need to clarify regarding large businessmen, that “their behavior on many occasions is ethically and criminally reprehensible.” If we think about it, ethically reprehensible behavior is not greater for being a great businessman, or for being a successful journalist, or a very popular actress, or a humble economics professor from a mediocre country.
With some exceptions, the office does not remove or add to individual morality, we are all exposed to temptations. Neverthelesswe are much more willing to think that the rich are selfish and steal. Not surprisingly, it was the Spanish scholastics of the School of Salamanca who explained that prices rose due to inflation, not due to the selfishness of merchants.
How to marry Jorrín’s sensible recommendation regarding the importance of large companies being at the center of the economic strategy, with the anti-rich prejudice of our country? It doesn’t seem easy. And yet, it is necessary for our SMEs to grow and reach a certain size in order to survive what the future brings us, but the present.
Digitization requires an investment and a size that many Spanish companies will not be able to assume. The financial resilience that has been so necessary to recover the post-pandemic tone is another of the problems of medium-sized companies. And, what is worse, facing the end of this year, at least, the logistical imbalance, the energy problems, the inflation, the political instability of our country, due, in part, to the showcase measures and the little credibility that a government so indebted transmits, they are not going to make it easy for Spanish SMEs.
What can be expected from a social-communist government in these circumstances? It is not going to put the right incentives, not even to win the elections, because the structural change of the business community has different times than the electoral ones. He catches them out of hand.
What can you expect from great entrepreneurs? I can think of two ways out. One, the mercantilist, is to try to ally, for survival, with political power and become companies at the service of the party, rather than at the service of the Government. The other, of course, is to go and invest your time, energy and resources where they are valued.
And of civil society? Can we expect him to realize the importance of giving his job to big businessmen, to the rich? And not only that, are we going to get rid of that prejudice towards the rich? Are we going to promote wealth and revile iniquity, whether it comes from the rich or the poor?
