To me, there’s nobody more admirable than a successful businessman.

These are the people who have a vision and execute it. They create jobs, opportunity and economic growth along the way.

They help give people not only work, but purpose in their lives. In a way, the work they do is more important than charity, because it’s only out of the excess of success that charity becomes possible.

But there’s another, more important reason. It’s because businesses are derided as evil, even though they’ve been one of the great bringers of peace on earth.

This is already played out in the McDonald’s Theory of Conflict Prevention. It’s the simple observation that no two nations, once they each have a set of golden arches, have ever gone to war with each other.

That’s the power of capitalism. Buying the world a Coke won’t bring peace on earth, but thinking up ways to better the lives of your fellow man while making a living in the process just might. When people focus on growing the economic pie, they’re less focused on finding militant ways to grab the largest slice of a smaller pie.

But it doesn’t stop there.

Businesses today succeed amid the angry curses of tea partyers and Wall Street Occupiers who demand their heads (and annual bonuses) on a pike.

They do it in willful opposition to a government that condescendingly forced healthcare regulations on them, not to mention other onerous regulations, fees, and taxes.

They do it in spite of a media that portrays businessmen as villains, even though Hollywood accounting practices make it possible for billion-dollar-grossing Harry Potter movies to be a loss.

They do it in the face of laws of supply and demand and an ever-changing environment where there’s no “sure thing.”

Or perhaps, they do it because of all these assaults on business and capitalism. Or they live for the challenge. Because they're on Earth to build something for themselves, for their community, and for the future of mankind. It’s that pioneering spirit that made America great. We need more of that today.

That's why the average businessman deserves your gratitude this holiday season. After all, no matter where the economy goes, the simplest way to beat inflation over the long run is to invest alongside business by owning stocks.

Without the risk-takers of capitalism, you’d have to raise your own turkey and make your own presents. And as for time with the family, there’d be plenty of time for that during a long day plowing fields and growing crops.

So when you’re saturated with visions of elderly misers shouting “Humbug” and other trappings of the holiday season, hold the right thought in your mind. Business isn’t the bad guy. Success simply breeds jealousy. Hatred of capitalism is just a red herring.