Zero-sum compassion

When I first read about the "controversy" over the cost of the Bush Inauguration, it was on a shrill left-wing blog and I figured that would be the only place that something this stupid would be discussed. To my amazement, this non-story has actually found some legs and has now been tied to the uproar over U.S. contributions to the Tsunami disaster relief effort. As I have pointed out before, the inauguration is being privately funded! If my tax dollars were being used to buy champagne for millionaires, I would be first in the outrage line. However, no tax money (beyond the security the President rightly enjoys) are part of the inauguration's 40 million dollar tab. For the complainer class to use this as a weapon to attack America for its alleged lack of response to the Tsunami crisis is not only dishonest, it is deeply ignorant of economics. This argument suggests that every dollar not spent on Tsunami relief is a dollar that the victims are being deprived of. By that reasoning, every time I go to the local pub for a Hefeweizen and a bacon/jalapeno burger, an orphan in Burkina Faso starves to death. This is, of course, silly, but many liberals believe that this is how money works. I didn't need to read Thomas Sowell to figure out that this is absurd. This lie is disproved in the first few chapters of every "Intro to Economics" book being used today. Wealth is constantly being created and destroyed. I deprive no one of anything when I order that greasy burger and cloudy, delicious beer. In fact, I pay a fry cook, several farmers, a couple of slaughterhouses, some shipping companies, a waitress and two guys in Portland that brew really good beer (plus their employees, their vendors, etc.) These people can then go to banks and use the fact that I am using their services to borrow (create wealth) for new services, products, markets and jobs. So when compassion fascists try to brow beat you for using your purchasing power to enjoy life, give them a quarter to call some one who cares and then remind them that quarter will do more to improve the economic well-being of ordinary people then all the teeth nashing and false sincerity in the world.