Yes, the description of Scrooge's solitude in the opening is very strikingly at odds with the image of a person who is "good at business". Who's he doing business with? It seems only those desperate enough to have no other recourse.https://twitter.com/tmdoyle2/status/1342568471016726531 …
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He no more creates wealth and opportunity than a predatory payday lender does.
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You could criticize A Christmas Carol as a capitalist critique by saying that Ebenezer Scrooge is an unrealistic strawman of a capitalist *because* he is miserable and wallows in misery in ways that aren't even profitable for him.
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But the thing is, qualities like keeping his employee miserable and lending money in ways that ruin rather than aid his borrowers... that mean-spirited short-sightedness... is abundantly on display in modern business.
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Nowadays it's done in the name of Growth rather than Thrift, but it's the same impulse.
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If we accept the text as true within itself -- and the WSJ's quibble with Dickens isn't that he got the events wrong, only their meaning -- then Scrooge doesn't go broke when he starts paying Cratchit more and treating him better.
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And again, Scrooge himself within the text is the one who realizes it doesn't cost an employer anything to regard their employees kindly, and it makes the employees' lives better for nothing.
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We know that Marley died with money and that he left it to Scrooge. When Scrooge dies, one imagines his money would have gone to Fred, who at least would have enjoyed it. There's no indication in the source that they enriched society materially with all their thrift.
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To make a long story short (TOO LATE!), the premise of the WSJ editorial is at best not supported by the text and arguably directly contradicted by it. Scrooge's wealth was hoarded for its own sake, not invested. He was more a slumlord than a captain of industry.
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Replying to @AlexandraErin
Scrooge is the dude who, in the Vimes boot theory, can afford the nice boots but buys the cheap boots anyway
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Well, he buys the cheap boots and then just never leaves the house
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