How Free-Market Capitalism Saved the Miners

There's a great article in today's Wall Street Journal by Daniel Henninger about how the frequently maligned principles of free-market capitalism, free trade, globalization, the miracle of the market, the profit motive, and the invisible hand saved the miners in Chile.  Some excerpts appear below, and you can watch Daniel's video above.

"It needs to be said. The rescue of the Chilean miners is a smashing victory for free-market capitalism.

If those miners had been trapped a half-mile down like this 25 years ago anywhere on earth, they would be dead. What happened over the past 25 years that meant the difference between life and death for those men? Short answer: the Center Rock drill bit, from a private company in Berlin, Pa. that has 74 employees."

But the longer answer is that it was really a coordinated global effort that supplied the materials "from the distant corners of capitalism" to help aid and rescue the miners in Chile's Atacama Desert, including:

The drill's rig came from Schramm Inc. in West Chester, Pa.

The high-strength cable winding around the big wheel atop that simple rig is from Germany.

Japan supplied the super-flexible, fiber-optic communications cable that linked the miners to the world above.

Samsung of South Korea supplied a cellphone that has its own projector.allowing the miners to see films or videos of loved ones

Cupron Inc. in Richmond, Va., supplied self-sterilizing socks made with copper fiber that consumed foot bacteria, and minimized odor and infection.

In an open economy, you will never know what is out there on the leading developmental edge of this or that industry. But the reality behind the miracles is the same: Someone innovates something useful, makes money from it, and re-innovates, or someone else trumps their innovation. Most of the time, no one notices. All it does is create jobs, wealth and well-being. But without this system running in the background, without the year-over-year progress embedded in these capitalist innovations, those trapped miners would be dead."