I know I just cited a Wall Street Journal article, but I can’t help it that there are so many good ones this week! Plus, it’s hard to ignore a headline that reads “Capitalism Saved the Miners.” Until now, I haven’t heard a single individual refer to Chile’s rescue story in the context of free-market innovation, but wow. It appears capitalism really did place a significant role in this week’s remarkable event.
Daniel Henninger introduces us to the Center Rock drill bit – the miracle bit that saved the lives of the miners. The bit, developed at Center Rock, Inc. in Berlin, Pennsylvania, was offered to Chile by the company’s president, Brandon Fisher. Thanks to capitalism, this tough piece of technology was able to step in and save the day. And it’s not the only invention to thank. The drill's rig came from the West Chester, Pennsylvania-based Schramm, Inc., Germany supplied high-strength cable to wrap around the rig, Japan provided a fiber-optic communications cable, Samsung of South Korea offered a cellphone with its own projector so the miners could watch movies, and a Richmond, Virginia entrepreneur distributed socks “made with copper fiber that consumed foot bacteria, and minimized odor and infection.” No, I’m not kidding.
In short, it was a team effort and modern innovation that made the happy ending possible. Given the proven success of capitalism over the years, why is it being threatened more than ever before? Given our current economic climate, now is not the time to halt America’s path to prosperity. The WSJ sums it up well:
“The miners' rescue is a thrilling moment for Chile, an imprimatur on its rising status. But I'm thinking of that 74-person outfit in Berlin, Pa., whose high-tech drill bit opened the earth to free them. You know there are tens of thousands of stories like this in the U.S., as big as Google and small as Center Rock. I'm glad one of them helped save the Chileans. What's needed now is a new American economic model that lets our innovators rescue the rest of us.”
I couldn’t agree more.