It’s a shame, really, that more people don’t understand that the benefits of intellectual property rights extend far beyond the companies and people who own them. Part of the reason for that confusion is the Neo-Marxists.
Marxism seeks to destroy property rights, vesting them in the state. But that economic theory has been completely discredited in all but a few countries and American universities. The Neo-Marxists don’t fight the battle over physical anymore; they’ve turned instead to intellectual property (IP). And, also like the Marxists, they claim that stealing intellectual property helps the poor.
Hence, their opposition to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).
A hundred years ago, when Marxism was really gaining a foothold among intellectuals, property rights drove innovation and ecconomic growth. Today, IP rights drive innovation. As Jonathan I. Schwartz, president and COO of Sun Microsystems, has said, IP is “the foundation of world economies.” If new ideas created by individuals and companies aren’t protected from free riders, they have no incentive to invent and sell items that are beneficial to man.
Consider the neo-Marxism of Brazil. It has threatened to break the patents on five AIDS drugs made by international pharmaceutical companies so that local companies can make the drugs based on those companies’ patents. The government would then make the drugs available at no cost.
That might work – for a while. But it almost guarantees that Brazilians will have limited access to new drugs for AIDS and other diseases. Pharmaceutical companies won’t be willing to go into Brazil’s market if they know they’re going to be robbed.
But trying to teach basic economics to Marxists made them grouchy then; and so it is with the neo-Marxists – as the CAFTA debate demonstrates.
Let’s be clear: the issue here isn’t trade, it’s not economic growth, it’s not even about helping the poor. The issue is that the neo-Marxists want to spread their failed economic ideology, and those with any economic sense can’t let that happen.