"PUT ON A STACK OF 45's"- DIRE STRAITS- "MONEY FOR NOTHING"- Dig This With The Splendid Bohemians - Featuring Rich Buckland and Bill Mesnik -The Boys Devote Each Episode To A Famed 45 RPM And Shine A Light Upon It's Import

In 1985, the British rock band Dire Straits released the song “Money for Nothing.” It is an undeniable rock classic. It also is a superb entry point for—of all things—judging the morality of capitalism. It is worth a listen as well as a classroom lesson.The lyrics relay the perspective of a laborer. As he sees a video of rock musicians on MTV, he expresses envy. He strains in the delivery of appliances while the musicians enjoy great wealth and adoration with little hardship:We got to install microwave ovens, custom kitchen deliveriesWe got to move these refrigerators, we gotta move these color TVsListen hereNow that ain’t workin’, that’s the way you do itYou play the guitar on the MTVThat ain’t workin’, that’s the way you do itMoney for nothin’ and your chicks for freeAs the song proceeds, the envy gives way to anger and resentment. There is injustice—even absurdity—in how wealth is distributed! An honest day’s work should be more valued!No shit.“Money for Nothing” is the dream of every generation. For society as a whole, there are two ways to get it. The first way is theft on a national scale. That means the extraction of goods and services from neighboring lands through warfare (i.e., pillaging and enslavement). The second way is through a set of property rights which aids the exchange of values and which permits innovation to flourish.For ninety nine percent of human existence, we have chosen extraction. More recently, the right liberal attitudes toward commerce and diversity have won favor enough to inform our institutions.While we still remain uneasy about the free-wheeling quality of markets, I think we can all agree that exchange is better than the old way to get “money for nothing and your chicks for free.”     -  Scott Drylie -Assistant Professor of Economics, Cost Analysis, and Acquisition Management at the Air Force Institute of Technology in Dayton, Ohio.