Obama and Social Darwinism

Recently, President Obama criticised Republicans for espousing "thinly veiled Social Darwinism."

I have worked as a software engineer in Silicon Valley for 30 years and I have yet to hear someone say: "The software module produced by this team is inefficient and buggy. Nevertheless, we should continue to employ the people on this team because it is our social responsibility to protect their jobs." More likely someone would say: "We should show these people the door as quickly as possible before they put us out of business."

The software industry is ultra-competitive. Call it Social Darwinism if you will, but the fact is: the best software wins. That is what keeps the software industry so vibrant.

When President Obama criticizes Social Darwinism, what he is saying in effect is: "We don't want our American companies to be subjected to the tempering and toughening forces of the global marketplace. We don't want them to be the most robust, vital companies they can be. We want our businesses to achieve social goals, not business goals."

The problem is: as soon as businesses start to direct their energies towards achieving social goals instead of business goals, they start to lose their ability to compete. Less competitive businesses eventually go bankrupt, and the jobs of all their employees are lost.

So, to the extent that Obama seeks to inhibit the operation of the forces of Social Darwinism, he is actually degrading the quality of American businesses, bringing about higher levels of unemployment in the United States, and driving jobs overseas.

Every software engineer in Silicon Valley grasps this intuitively. Obama, the community organizer, hasn't a clue.