Occupy Wall-Street. The 99%. The 1%. Income inequality. Taxes. Welfare. Health care. Bankruptcy.
These are buzz words we have been seeing recently. There is a lot of propaganda being spilled out each day. Let's define a main goal in life, We all want to pursue happiness, live life, and be free. Let's cut through some of the rhetoric and be honest for a minute, so we can assess how we can accomplish the goal. Inequality is bad. Poverty is bad. The 7 deadly sins are seductive, but harmful and, well deadly. They are destructive to the main goal. Also, Capitalism is bad.
Wait, you say! Capitalism is NOT bad! No, of course it is. It feeds greed, uses lust to sell its products, encourages gluttony, inspires envy, covets slothfulness wealth brings, causes wrath, and creates pride. Luck and skill and inheritance create income inequality. Multi-national corporations cause havoc to countries, environment and families. Don't argue against these things because they are true. Capitalism causes harm.
Since there are problems with capitalism, maybe the answer is more regulation. Perhaps socialize some things that are vital to life, such as electricity, water, sewer, and health-care. We should subsidize some things such as education and housing. We should have more government involvement to help reduce inequality and many of the harmful effects of capitalism. People take advantage of capitalism, they lie, steal, cheat and murder. So we need a good system to draft laws and a strong police to enforce those laws. Now the world is actually better off.
But now, this results in a larger government, more bureaucracy and a lot of power entrusted in a few people. What comes of this? Well lust can be satisfied now by using government position, if you have power over a budget then gluttony is a temptation, pursuit of power fuels envy in those that have it, losing power causes wrath, greed forces government to overstep its bounds, and the receivers of the wealth distribution inherit sloth. Government intervention causes harm.
These harm is not brought about by structure, we cause harm to each when we try to look out for just ourselves. We as humans are flawed. This won't change. But the balance for whether when we need to decide between capitalism or more government comes down to two things. First, it is really hard to stop a government when it has gone too far. Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Iraq, China and Iran are all examples. Recently we have seen Soviet Union, Egypt and Libya change, but it is very hard to do. The second advantage that capitalism holds is an invisible hand. This does not mean just the self interest motivation, but cooperation in markets without coercion. It just works. An invisible hand helps capitalism to make the world better and this only works in capitalism.
You don't need be a historian to look at where we have come and see that, with all its problems capitalism has brought us pretty far over the past 250 years. It has brought more people out of poverty. It has created innovation, saved more lives, advanced democracy and freedom, education and increased happiness across the world. The evidence is clear as we look back at history and what is occurring now around the world, we are better off with more capitalism. Governments should try to increase markets and intervene in order to preserve life, liberty and property. When in doubt though, more capitalism and markets.
These are buzz words we have been seeing recently. There is a lot of propaganda being spilled out each day. Let's define a main goal in life, We all want to pursue happiness, live life, and be free. Let's cut through some of the rhetoric and be honest for a minute, so we can assess how we can accomplish the goal. Inequality is bad. Poverty is bad. The 7 deadly sins are seductive, but harmful and, well deadly. They are destructive to the main goal. Also, Capitalism is bad.
Wait, you say! Capitalism is NOT bad! No, of course it is. It feeds greed, uses lust to sell its products, encourages gluttony, inspires envy, covets slothfulness wealth brings, causes wrath, and creates pride. Luck and skill and inheritance create income inequality. Multi-national corporations cause havoc to countries, environment and families. Don't argue against these things because they are true. Capitalism causes harm.
Since there are problems with capitalism, maybe the answer is more regulation. Perhaps socialize some things that are vital to life, such as electricity, water, sewer, and health-care. We should subsidize some things such as education and housing. We should have more government involvement to help reduce inequality and many of the harmful effects of capitalism. People take advantage of capitalism, they lie, steal, cheat and murder. So we need a good system to draft laws and a strong police to enforce those laws. Now the world is actually better off.
But now, this results in a larger government, more bureaucracy and a lot of power entrusted in a few people. What comes of this? Well lust can be satisfied now by using government position, if you have power over a budget then gluttony is a temptation, pursuit of power fuels envy in those that have it, losing power causes wrath, greed forces government to overstep its bounds, and the receivers of the wealth distribution inherit sloth. Government intervention causes harm.
These harm is not brought about by structure, we cause harm to each when we try to look out for just ourselves. We as humans are flawed. This won't change. But the balance for whether when we need to decide between capitalism or more government comes down to two things. First, it is really hard to stop a government when it has gone too far. Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Iraq, China and Iran are all examples. Recently we have seen Soviet Union, Egypt and Libya change, but it is very hard to do. The second advantage that capitalism holds is an invisible hand. This does not mean just the self interest motivation, but cooperation in markets without coercion. It just works. An invisible hand helps capitalism to make the world better and this only works in capitalism.
You don't need be a historian to look at where we have come and see that, with all its problems capitalism has brought us pretty far over the past 250 years. It has brought more people out of poverty. It has created innovation, saved more lives, advanced democracy and freedom, education and increased happiness across the world. The evidence is clear as we look back at history and what is occurring now around the world, we are better off with more capitalism. Governments should try to increase markets and intervene in order to preserve life, liberty and property. When in doubt though, more capitalism and markets.
