The assault on Capitalism

I was checking out some movies that are set to premier in the next few months and I came across an interesting title. It was called "the end of poverty?" As I read the synopsis I discovered that the movie is just a thinly veiled attempt to smear Capitalism. The movie asks the question "why does poverty still exist in this day in age?" The director asserts that the reason there are poor people in the world is because of the free market (capitalist) system. And that the only way people become wealthy is by stealing it from someone less fortunate than them. He also claims that the U.S. only became the super power it is today because we steal a disproportionate share of the worlds resources.

Here's the problem with that entire assessment. It just isn't true.

Liberals like to assert the theory that if one man becomes wealthy it's because he took his wealth from another man of lesser means. For example. If I own a business and I employ John to work for $10 an hour, I get rich off the labor of John and I give him a disproportionately small share of my profits. The 10 dollars. The truth would actually sound like this. If I hadn't risked everything 20 years ago to start my business from nothing, I would not be able to offer a job to John for $10 an hour. John agrees to provide me with one hour of work, and I agree to give him $10 for his efforts. Thus adding more money to the economy and making the pie bigger.

Capitalists see the economy for what it is. A huge pie that only gets bigger every time a new person adds his or her talent and investment. So if I start a company, the pie gets bigger because I am offering a good or service that people need. They are then inclined to purchase my goods and I make money. I can then provide jobs to people who need them and they spend the money they make with me at other businesses who can in turn do the same thing.

Socialists think that the pie has a set diameter and that it cannot get any bigger than whatever that diameter is. So if I start a company and I make money, it's because somebody else somewhere in the pie made a little less money.

So we see this assault coming from several angles today. We see it in the movie "the end of poverty?" we see it in the Michael Moore film "Capitalism, a love story". We hear our own President besmirch the free market system when he says the free market is what caused the economic meltdown over the past year. I was paraphrasing and he didn't actually said that word for word, but he claims the "greedy", "reckless", free market system for what happened . He will probably never come out and say that he is anti-capitalism, or anti-free-market. But it's not difficult to see past his rhetoric and understand his intent.

So many people who are anti-capitalism think that socialism is the best way to advance the human condition.

The problem with socialism is that it can't last beyond the short term. The way it works is you get a large group of people to go along with your idea for socialism because they know they will get something for nothing. Then you bleed the wealthy people through taxation and penalties, and give their money to the masses. The wealthy are not numerous enough to have a significant say in the matter. Eventually you run out of rich people to bleed dry and the system collapses. Then you have abject poverty and rampant crime. That's when the power vacuum is created and the dictators come in. Then you have tyranny and oppression sometimes followed by genocide. Take a look at Africa.

Capitalism has advanced the human condition to a point where everyone under it's wing has a chance to become financially independent and free of any constraints. Without capitalism we would not have cars, advanced medicine, beds to sleep in, toys for our children, food that is safe to eat, and on and on and on. Capitalism has brought us to a point in existence where we no longer have to feel unsafe in our homes or cars, we trust everything we eat, we know we will get the best health care in the world for cheap.

Socialism gives you Cuba, China, Vietnam, Afghanistan(formerly), Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Germany, Russia, Venezuela, Iraq, Uganda, and more. Does anyone want to live in these countries?

There's a reason people completely denounce their allegiance to their home country they have known for their whole lives and move to the United States. We have the best and strongest economic system in the world. They do so by the thousands year after year just for the chance. Yet our government is trying to destroy this system. I've said it before and I'll say it again.

If we fail, there is nowhere else to go.