Rooting for Old Man Potter

December 23rd, 2007 by bkmarcus

In a recent post, I link to "The Economics of Santa's Workshop" and "Scrooge Defended," both classics from Mises.org.

I didn't link to Mises.org's "Christmas Movies and Bad Economics", which deals, in part, with Frank Capra's warped holiday smear against capitalism (when it's his hero, George Bailey, who explains and legitimizes fractional-reserve banking to a frightened crowd ready to start a bank run, calming them and convincing them — and us — to trust the criminal FRB scam just a little while longer).

While our hero is the handsome, idealistic, small-town fractional-reserve banker, the grumpy old villain, Mr. Potter, is a profit-grubbing slumlord.

What is not explained — what is never explained about the vindictive tycoons of fiction — is where Potter gets his money. (In the depths of the Depression, he is waited on by liveried servants.) He can't have made a fortune renting a few hovels, and none of the properties he owns will bring in a penny unless they offer something people want. So, although he is shown doing nothing but pushing other people around, Potter must be providing a valuable service or selling something in great demand.

There's also this much longer list of links from Justin Ptak at blog.Mises: "'It's a Wonderful Life"' Deconstructed," including Gary North's "Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter!" as well as hints at some unscrupulous activity between the left-wing Frank Capra and his right-wing star, Jimmy Stewart. (And his right-wing spymaster, J. Edgar Hoover!) My favorite treatment of It's a Wonderful Life ignores all these emotionally and politically manipulative issues (as, I suspect, do most viewers) and goes to the less ideological heart of the story: "We Need an Angel Like Clarence" by Lew Rockwell

Posted in LvMI, culture, history |

4 Responses

1. Waldo Jaquith Says:
   December 23rd, 2007 at 3:39 pm

   Don't forget that Potter is a literal thief. Remember, he finds the money that Billy left in the bank, folded up in the newspaper, and steals it? He does this knowing that it will drive his competition out of business (the Bailey family's bank).

   People root for Bailey over Potter because Potter is the sort of guy who gives business a bad name -- his position in the market is maintained, and we're to assume was initially established, through crime.

   
   
2. bkmarcus Says:
   December 23rd, 2007 at 4:07 pm

   Michael Levin includes this point in "Christmas Movies and Bad Economics":

   Potter finally gets his chance to ruin Bailey when Bailey's drunken uncle, loyally retained as financial officer (don't Bailey's stockholders care about personnel policy?), unwittingly leaves $8,000 of the firm's money on Potter's wheelchair. Potter of course keeps it, and, with the money missing, Bailey faces imprisonment. He is about to kill himself when an "angel, 2nd class" intervenes, showing Bailey that his life has been well-spent because of the good he has done. Bailey embraces life anew, and, in the final scene, everyone he has helped over the years chips in to lend him the missing money. There is not a dry eye in the house.

   It seems to have eluded the creators of Life that two key elements of this denouement work against the profit-is-dubious, altruism-is-good message. First Potter's knowingly keeping the $8,000 is not a market transaction, since the money is someone else's property not acquired in a voluntary exchange. Potter's malefaction is just the sort of behavior the market forbids, and if discovered would lead to criminal penalties.

   
   
3. Anthony Gregory Says:
   December 25th, 2007 at 10:06 pm

   But where is the evidence that the film's creators did not intend for Potter's blatant theft to be seen as theft rather than voluntary exchange?

   
   
4. Tom Ender Says:
   December 30th, 2007 at 3:47 pm

   I hadn't ever considered that George Bailey promoted fractional reserve banking (though voluntary and contractual), but I cannot think of any indication that Potter (with the bank) did not also.

   Potter gets a thumbs down from me for relishing his job at the draft board (1A, 1A, 1A...). I easily prefer George Bailey to Potter, though neither character rises to the level of Stewart's portrayal of Martin Breitner from "The Mortal Storm."

   
   

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