What is Capitalism? Video, Transcript, and Sources.
Transcript
What is Capitalism?
Capitalism is a term that has been misunderstood for decades because of mass media manipulation.
The root word of capitalism, “capital,” historically referred to wealth by number of livestock.
The Latin word “caput,” meaning “head,” signaled the heads of cattle owned.
Today, capitalism has evolved to include many forms of wealth used to generate even more wealth beyond livestock, from business ownership to stock investments, to real estate.
Socialists, bemoaning this aggregation of wealth, began using the terms “capitalism” and “capitalist” as disparagements, painting imagery of rich moguls in black suits oppressing the masses with borderline slave labor.
But is “capitalism” really some dirty word signaling exploitation?
And is it bad to be a capitalist?
The answer is: No.
Capitalism is chiefly about private ownership over the means of production.
It’s the idea that either an individual or a smaller set of individuals have some ownership stake in a business as opposed to collective ownership by all workers through democracy.
This could be a mom-and-pop shop where the mom and pop hire a weekend manager, a large retail store chain, or even a home-based business with seasonal employee work.
Captialism also means that people are free to trade in a market economy using money or currency to signal their wants and needs.
And, under capitalism, people can take direct payment for labor without being given an ownership share in a company, a structure commonly known as “wages.”
Socialists resent the capitalist idea that some people are business owners while others work solely as wage-earning employees.
Because of what socialists see as an unfair system, they try to demonize capitalism by wrongly associating private business with state action, conflating state contracts, subsidies, and legalized protection rackets with “capitalism.”
When the government hands out tax money and gives one organization special privileges, that isn’t capitalism, but cronyism.
When the government mandates the use or acceptance of a good or service, that isn’t consensual trade in a free market, but state control.
When the government operates a utility or other business directly, that is the government engaged in central planning, not capitalism.
What you should notice here is that capitalism is rooted in consent, not the coercive force of the state.
To be engaged in capitalism means that the actions and transactions are met by peaceful trade, not through threats of force, like a mafia racket does.
That’s just extortion, not capitalism.
Socialists want to paint private ownership as this violent extortion even though no one is forced to buy the products sold or to work for any employer.
Ironically, they fail to recognize that forcing collective ownership is itself violent extortion over both the resources of a capitalist and the choices people make for work.
To say that no one can own a business with wage-earning employees is to say that violence will be used against a business owner for choosing how to operate their physical property and violence will also be used if someone wants to work for wages so that they don’t have the full responsibility over the entire business.
This is why you see a lot of mass violence whenever there is a turn toward socialism: the people are told to kill off all capitalists, from landlords to CEOs, in the name of socialist democracy.
This mass violence ends up being counterproductive to the supposed aims as it signals that those who work hard for great reward will have those rewards confiscated by the democratic mob, leading to a lack of interest in productive effort.
Socialism takes that effort and intelligence required for widespread value creation and removes the incentives as socialists force democratic controls and redistribution of wealth.
Alternatively, capitalism incentivizes those who want to provide unique and consistent value with productive reward. Capitalism is in every way superior to socialism because capitalism not only respects and rewards consensual trade, but it even allows those with a democratic preference to try out a collective business model with a worker-owned cooperative.
As you can see, capitalism is not a dirty word, but a beautiful, inspiring term for those providing value to others.
In our current world, we don’t have pure capitalism because of state intervention in the market.
However, the closer the dial gets toward true capitalism, the freer and more prosperous people are.
The further the dial turns toward democratic state control over the means of production, the poorer people become due to the inefficiencies of democratic influence over every business decision.
So, you don’t need to be shy about being a capitalist.
Capitalism is a wonderful term that encompasses many kinds of lifestyles, from being a large business owner to having an Airbnb rental unit to investing in stocks as a side hustle.
What matters most is that you advocate coercion-free capitalism, which comes into fullness when people respect the bodies and properties of others without excuse.
And that takes a rejection of CRONYIUSM, whether it’s subsidies, bailouts, special privileges, or regulatory capture granted by the state.
Sources
What Is “Capitalism” Anyway? https://fee.org/articles/what-is-capitalism-anyway/
Chapter 5 Capitalism: The Market Economy https://mises.org/online-book/mises-reader-unabridged/chapter-5-capitalism-market-economy
Understanding Anti-Capitalist Fallacies https://mises.org/mises-wire/understanding-anti-capitalist-fallacies
The History of Capitalism https://mises.org/mises-wire/history-capitalism
#politics #philosophy #capitalism #capitalist #libertarian #ancap #endthefed #taxationistheft #freemarkets #education #economics #history #americanhistory #freedom #liberty
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