If this rhetoric continues, we may have to deem it an Olympic sport.

Remember the 1930s, when Americans loaded into steamers to cross the pond for a meeting with Stalin and company? The common observation of the day was that capitalism was dead and we needed to turn to its adversary, communism, or possibly its stepsister, socialism.

But capitalism is not intrinsically evil. We agree with the late British Prime Minister Edward Heath that occasionally a bad apple would bob to the surface to rear the "unacceptable face of capitalism."

The "occasional" has morphed into "way too often." When we examine the recent dereliction in the world's capital markets - particularly in America - we too often find testament to those who engaged in the practice of capitalism, rather than to the system itself.

Alleged injustices mount, as the patrons of anything other than capitalism are heard across our wealth-stained land raucously decrying the world's obscene profits.

A recent editorial proclaimed this true when it pointed out that ExxonMobil Corp. in 2007 "banked a record-setting $48 billion in profits."

What if we altered this statement slightly: ExxonMobil created $48 billion in wealth, money obtained through discipline, dedication, expertise and a willingness to provide a product the entire world needs, not to mention a lot of good ol' fashioned hard work.

Continue that thought by acknowledging the American reality of being able to pull into a gas station to fill up the tank on the SUV, fuel provided by Exxon and companies like it. The tanks at the stations are always full and fuel is sold at a reasonable price.

People live in their comfortably heated homes that are filled with items produced as a result of the exploration, discovery and production of oil.

Is this a morally unjust and one-sided proposition, even when we greatly benefit in this transaction?

The myth is that wealth is finite and whenever companies make a profit, someone experiences a loss. This is patently false.

The wealth pie is infinite: it grows as people employ time, discipline and expertise, as well as professional skills, and translate this into creating and delivering at a market-driven price, something people need or desire.

Sand is a good example: someone once found sand could be made into fiber optic cable. Wealth magically appeared, while millions of lives were improved as the world's knowledge become available in a keystroke and a cable modem hooked up to a computer.

Capitalism is not a win-loose proposition. If it were, it could not survive. That is why the disparity of wealth argument is invalid.

Another popular refrain: did you know that 10 percent of the people control 90 percent of the wealth? Does this make you feel morally indignant? Yes? Then it has accomplished its task.

The truth is a little deeper. Bill Gates is rich, but does that mean he made someone else poor to gain that wealth?

If ExxonMobil is prosperous and other companies or individuals aren't, does this mean Exxon is morally wrong?

This doesn't stop Americans and others from feeling that somehow a wrong was committed in the generation of wealth. This, however, would only be true if the pie that represented wealth never increases - which it does and does so constantly.

The law governing capitalism is not the strong devouring the weak as Michael Moore would have us believe; rather it is about one person or company serving consumers better than their competitors.

Think of the iPod, a sophisticated product that allows one to connect to the Internet and with the click of a mouse purchase a song that we can carry with us, anywhere in the world. The point is that someone created wealth by producing a product that people want.

By the way, Apple's profit margin on the sale of an iPod is around 60 percent. As a company, the profit margin is around 36 percent.

For its business prowess, ExxonMobil is maligned. Last year it created a profit of $45.2 billion on $477 billion in gross revenues. This amounts to a gross profit of 9 percent. ExxonMobil has to make $1 in revenue to make a profit of 9 cents. Hardly exorbitant

The 36 companies representing the oil industry in the S&P as a whole, with the exception of 2008, will show similar profit margins.

The manufacturing sector will hover around 9 percent, if you exclude the auto industry. Why are we not shouting about the evils of manufacturing?

If a company making a reasonable profit wasn't bad enough, many pay dividends every year, and hire people, paying them good wages. That's money created by hard work, unlike our government, which hires people to print money in Washington.

Speaking of jobs, aren't we in desperate need of jobs in this country? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average weekly wages for nonsupervisory workers in natural resources and mining were 70 percent higher than the national average.

Not only does the sector have the capability of creating more wealth and more jobs, those jobs will pay well.

Some suggest the government take action to confiscate the wealth created by industry and disperse it among, presumably, the population. It's ironic, then, that those same people fail to realize that the federal government wields more power than any entity on earth.

If it is the power that wealth creates that you are suspicious of, it is morbidly ironic that some would suggest the government as a savior when they control more wealth than any company in the world.

In 2008 ExxonMobil willfully, knowingly and with great expertise, risked $26 billion of the wealth that the company created by investing in further exploration and development of resources.

What did you do?