A Salute to Businessmen

In normal times, it seems to be a national pastime to criticize and castigate businessmen. But these aren’t normal times, and many are beginning to realize the important role that businessmen play in our lives.

Without businessmen, most of us wouldn’t have a job. And without a job, we wouldn’t be able to pay the rent or buy food. Without businessmen, there would be no housing to rent or food to buy. Without businessmen, most of us would all be reduced to the subsistence level, spending all of our waking hours taking care of the most basic requirements to survive.

Many of us take it for granted that we can walk into a store and purchase toilet paper, bleach, and other cleaning products whenever we want. We take it for granted that the shelves will be stocked with produce, meat, and canned goods. Recent events have proven that we should not take that for granted. Recent events have demonstrated that without businessmen, life as we know it would not exist.

While many businesses are struggling to survive, and many will never recover from being forced to close, many are exercising heroic efforts to provide us with the products and services that we want and need. Grocery stores are working diligently to obtain product and get it on the shelves. Distillers are making hand sanitizer, which is currently needed more than whiskey or vodka. Across the country, businessmen are finding and buying medical equipment and materials that are desperately needed in their community. And there are countless other stories of businessmen stepping up during this crisis. Businessmen see a need or desire and seek to fulfill it. That is the nature of business, whether there is a crisis or not.

The government’s response to the pandemic has been to shut down the economy. And shutting down the economy means shutting down businessmen–the innovators and entrepreneurs who see a need and seek to fulfill it.

We owe a salute to the businessmen who are still free and able to provide us with the goods and services that we want and need. They are enabling us to maintain some semblance of normalcy. But when this crisis ends, we should not forget the role that businessmen play in helping us live. We should not forget to salute them for making our lives so much better.