battle royale

Reason has an odd matchup they are billing as a ‘battle royale’ between Milton Friedman, John Mackey, and T.J. Rodgers on the subject of corporate philanthropy. Odd, because Friedman, with his obvious reputation for economic clout is matched with Mackey, who, while he runs a successful company, is evidently no economist. The result is sortof like watching a whiffle-ball match between Jose Canseco and Woody Allen. There’s an obvious advantage, but the result is meaningless because they’re just batting around whiffleballs – moral platitudes, rhetoric, and baseless assumptions. There’s really not a drop of actual analysis – either sociological or economic – of the ramifications of corporate philanthropy. They’re not playing hardball, here.

I didn’t actually get to T.J. Rodgers’ bit, because I was alread thoroughly bored halfway through Friedman’s rebuttal and my bath was getting cold. Sorry, T.J.!