I suppose I could play that game by saying that I'd rather eat fast food than patronize most fancy restaurants (especially if I have to pay the bill!). And I've unintentionally played that game already by admitting that politicians aren't always sinister and evil.

But I have something even more astounding to confess: My leftist friends are right when they assert that the free market destroys jobs.

Not only are they right, they probably underestimate the number of jobs that are destroyed by capitalism. Over time, millions of jobs vanish because of the greedy pursuit of profits.

Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute shares some very sobering data on how almost all of the big companies of the 1950s have faded over the past 60 years.