This reasoning seems plausible. Nonetheless it is utterly wrong. If commodities cannot be sold and workers cannot find jobs, the reason can only be that the prices and wages asked are too high. He who wants to sell his inventories or his capacity to work must reduce his demand until he finds a buyer. Such is the law of the market. Such is the device by means of which the market directs every individual’s activities into those lines in which they can best contribute to the satisfaction of the wants of the consumers.

In our society of victims, entrepreneurs are blamed for many of the hardships that ail our economy. Whether it is because of high prices, low wages, or substandard economic conditions, they are often accused of exploitation in their quest for profits. The real victims in our economy, however, are usually not workers who voluntarily enter contracts to sell their labor nor consumers who voluntarily purchase products and services but instead entrepreneurs who are involuntarily subjected to the not-so-invisible hand of our government caretakers. Somehow, it seems completely reasonable to overtly exploit entrepreneurs for their resources in the name of preventing the potential exploitation of anyone else.

Inevitably, the progress we grow accustomed to we eventually believe we are entitled to. We treat every oil spill, mine explosion or plane crash as an outrage, an inexcusable breach of the promise that technology, planning and robust, efficient government would make life perpetually safer and nicer. Such transgressions against the religion of Enlightenment elicit a fundamentalist reaction: Human reason hasn’t failed us. Rather, we have failed it, and must redouble our commitment to better technology, smarter planning, and organizations that are shrewdly designed and expertly managed.

Over the last few months, I’ve frequently opined on how our hockey-loving neighbors to the North have been skating circles around the US government when it comes to international economic policy. While we embrace senseless mercantilism, they rush to open their markets to import competition (and its glorious cost-reduction benefits). While we kvetch about foreign currency practices, they see the bright side and adapt. While we maintain the second-highest corporate tax rate in the world (and seemingly add new tax burdens everyday), they lower their corporate tax rate and implement plans to reduce it even further. And, of course, when we prudishly refuse to enact signed Free Trade Agreements with Panama, South Korea and Colombia, they rush to finish and implement as many FTAs with as many partners as possible.