I sent this to the daily show

I just watched the Daily show the other day in the PC office, and decided to write the following letter to Jon Stewart:

Hey Jon and/or person who reads Jon’s mail. I’m a Peace Corps volunteer from Moldova (between the Ukraine and Romania, currently run by an elected communist government), and yesterday I was watching your show (yes, I’m in Moldova, somebody’s dad torrented it and sent it to us on DVD) and you were talking with a woman about oil companies. You stated “I understand that demand is high and supply is low and that prices go up, but why are oil companies’ profits so high? That somehow doesn’t seem fair when all the rest of us are suffering”. You were not implying collusion, you said simply that since we’re suffering, they should be too. Why do they deserve high profits? Why don’t I get some of their high profits, I’m suffering! It’s their fault! Couldn’t they give us a break, I mean, without us they wouldn’t have anyone to sell to. I mean really, they’re producing for us, right?

WRONG. They’re producing for themselves, they’re producing for their stockholders and the folks that made the company big and strong and wealthy enough to see times when oil prices were 70 dollars a barrel. In case you ever thought otherwise, let me tell you a little secret: their stated goal is to make a profit. If you want to bitch about something, bitch to your neighbor about his decision to buy an H2, bitch to your government about their excessive tax breaks and subsidies of the oil industry, bitch to G. W. Bush about how he brought us into a war on some very shaky ideological and factual grounds which is stirring up fear among investors in crude oil. If your response is “wait, regardless of the stated goal of the company, it is still located in America, and it is our society that has created the conditions from which it has thrived. It should repay that society for the priveledge of living in it.” First off… now that you see it written, can you see how ridiculous it is? Second – this society is successful for the very reason that people are assured that they can make money without it being taken away. Third, he’s already paying taxes (if he’s not, you have the right to be pissed). Fourth, do you really want a government that says “it’s ok to make profits up to a certain point (which we determine), at certain times (which we decide), and in certain industries (which we name)?

Jon Stewart, I am really disappointed in you… I decided to forgive you because I’m assuming you didn’t understand the basic economics of it (even though I don’t think that’s really true and even though my forgiveness probably means nothing to you). You’re great at letting compliments roll off your back, but even so I’d like to say I really enjoy your show and I think you’re a pretty smart cookie, and would even go so far to say that you’re helping move this country in the right direction in your own way. I just hope that little trickle of the we-deserve-it, he’s-too-rich, society’s-needs-too attitude was a slip up and not the real Jon Stewart.

In any case, I appreciate all the work you do and hope you continue in the future.

Greg Austic

Peace Corps Moldova, group 14