My name in print! Hypermediate blogger gets letter in Conde Nast Portfolio

If you're a reader of this blog (all 10 of you), you may have seen the post in December called "Robert Reich Gets It All Wrong." If so, you no doubt know about my feelings towards Reich's article in Portfolio that month.

Well, I did what I have never done, I wrote a letter to the editor. Lo and behold, they chose it. Who would have thunk it? They edited the letter a bit, so my point is a little diluted, unfortunately, but oh well. Here is the link to the letter in this month's Portfolio - and below is what they printed.

Nobody wants big companies to have more power than the government does, but Reich's worldview is fundamentally different from that of most capitalists. He doesn't seem to trust the market to agree with his views, so he calls for government to mandate them. And he fails to mention that for every government mandate placed on a business, there is a direct cost to that business. More costs equal higher prices. That doesn't sound like a consumer-friendly idea to me.

Contrast Reich's article with Roger Lowenstein's review of Daniel de Faro Adamson and Joe Andrew's The Blue Way ["The Wild Blue Yonder of Markets," January]. The book's authors note that companies that back Democrats and populist causes outperform those that do not. They are 100 percent correct.

I mention this because it gives proper credit to the real driver of the economy and the government: the individual. We get what we ask for, on the shelf and in our government. Reich thinks that price is the sole driver of consumer preference and that the people aren't capable of driving social change. Tell that to Toyota as it sells the Prius in high volume. Tell that to Method, whose safer, cleaner, more environmentally sound cleaning products are selling like hotcakes. Tell that to Patagonia, which leads the apparel industry in social causes as well as performance outdoor wear.

Why are these companies successful? Not simply because they are more socially conscious, but because that social consciousness is combined with great design, quality, service, and a reasonable price.

—Robert Wallace, Chandler, Arizona