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Torinus right and wrong

John Torinus is a local Milwaukee CEO who writes pro-business articles in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. I tend to appreciate them, and he's pretty reasonable. His latest article "Obama speech was full of anti-business rhetoric," intersects with my recent thoughts: will the Democratic nominee be reasonably pro-middle class, or wildly anti-business? Here's the editorial: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=730879

And here's my breakdown of Torinus, right and wrong:

Torinus is right that Obama's rhetoric lacks pragmatism on economic issues. He should learn from Hillary, who learned from Bill's partnership with business. Obama is busy riding his populist wave, but will find it difficult to govern effectively if he alienates the business community. Plus, there's reality: we can't run from free trade now, and our economy is largely based on "nothing more than a profit."

Torinus is wrong to imply that political and religious leaders are somehow more corrupt than business leaders. Businesses do an excellent job enforcing a moral code, but people do break the moral code. Businesses keep such problems in-house to protect their brand name. Religious and business leaders are considered public property, and their sins appear in headlines every day. Further, leaders of private organizations have the opportunity to settle out of court and avoid public excoriation. No one has to breach a confidentiality agreement to tattle on a politician. I guess, according to Torinus' narrow wording, Dick Strong does not count as a "Wisconsin corporate executive in recent memory" who was "charged with corruption."

Torinus is right to castigate the government's wild west accounting, but wrong not to place the blame on voters, where it belongs. To paraphrase Torinus, "Voters make the rules, politicians play by them."

Torinus understates the case that can be made for a more progressive tax system. He points out that the rich now provide the bulk of tax receipts to the IRS. Is that supposed to surprise anyone? The rich do not have historically high tax rates--they have historically high incomes! Their piece of the pie is historically large compared to any measure of average wages. The middle class has had enough of those crocodile tears.

Torinus is right to defend the virtues of business. America wouldn't be great without innovation, increasing productivity, or the benefits of local and global trade. But neither Torinus nor Obama have found a unifying economic message for America.

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