The Case For Capitalism
The picture above is a beautiful sight to behold. It shows what can happen when one is determined and clever.
Capitalism nowadays gets a bad rap. Understandable so. Income inequality is the highest it’s been in decades and billionaires have made billions more during a global pandemic in which there is widespread anguish, death, and unemployment. But I posit that the reason for the aforementioned issues is because of government intervention due to the influence of the powerful.
Have you ever heard of the Accredited Investor rule? It basically bars people from investing money into startups and other investments the government considers unless they have a certain net worth. However, it’s a totally bullshit rule. The government doesn’t consider gambling in Vegas risky. Nor does it consider putting 100% of your net worth in Bitcoin risky. Right now you can take all of your 401K money and an equivalent amount in lottery tickets and the government doesn’t care. That same person, however, couldn’t invest in Uber or Tesla before they IPO-ed. Or Airbnb. Or Google. Or Facebook. I can go on.
However, if this rule were waived imagine how many people would be millionaires now if they were allowed to invest in these startups from the start? Sure startups are risky but are they are risky as cryptocurrency? Lottery tickets? Gambling? Companies are staying private longer due to and the accredited investor rule at this point only serves to keep the poor, poor. Recently the rule has been modified but it still bars the majority of people from investing in startups.
America is now a country of mostly crony capitalism practices that do nothing but enrich a few at the expense of others. Every industry from Education to Healthcare to Consumer Goods etc. has lobbied so much for their interest at the expense of the public. They want to preserve the status quo at the expense of innovation and fairness. Pure capitalism gives everyone an opportunity to participate provided they have the capital to do so. The minute there is a rule that prevents competition you move further and further away from pure capitalism.
Now America has this Frankenstein of a system designed for a few at the expense of the many. And this is antithetical to what capitalism is. Is capitalism perfect? No, not at all. And there is room in a capitalistic system for socialist programs. Most of the developed world already does this. The UK does this. Denmark does this. Canada does this. New Zealand does this. Singapore, Switzerland, etc. have found ways to provide socialist programs for their citizens and they all are capitalist countries. There is no such thing as American capitalism. That’s like saying North Korea has its own type of democracy. Look it up. North Korea’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. But we know better.
To close, I guess I’m saying America is a mostly crony-capitalist country. Sure there are lots of opportunities here still but the equality of opportunity is eluding more and more people every day. But we can have our cake and eat it too here. Let’s look to our allies overseas for inspiration. We can reform America’s capitalism. And it can be better. For everyone.
