There is this growing notion that the free enterprise system is a failing system. As a result we have seen the rise of a self described socialist for president of the United States. The question is how did we come to this to begin with after all not long ago we all mocked socialism and now, it is on the rise in a seemingly quick manner. Well in my opinion this is partially the result of socialist policies being referred to as capitalist policies and no one there to defend her.
You may be wondering what I mean by socialist policies being referred to as capitalist policies. Well what I’m referring to is high tax, insane regulation and big government policies of the left who claim to be for capitalism when in fact there nothing more then in the closet socialists.
A true free market capitalist system is a system based on the principle that every man has a right to pursue his own self interest, and as a result of this he by accident benefits others. Take for example a bottle of milk in your local grocery store, why is the storekeeper selling milk? The reason is simple because the storekeeper has his own self interest to earn money. As a result of his self interest you benefited by having milk, but wait where did the milk come from? It came from a cow. Well why was someone raising a cow? Because he also had interest in earning money, so he raised a cow in order to milk it. Well how did he milk the cow? Well that he did with a machine, but who made the machine, and the metal for it, and don’t forget about the plastic bottle and the plastic for the bottle etc. Now think of it for second, for you to have your bottle of milk it took thousands of people. Well why did they all do this? Was there some government that sent out orders do this? of course not so then how did all these people who probably don’t even know each other cooperate to make a bottle of milk? The answer is simple because all these people are pursuing their own self interest which is to earn money, and so the chain began someone made metal to sell to all those who needed etc. Until you got your bottle of milk for the that small price and don’t forget that you who had your own interest of drinking milk by accident benefited all of those it took to make that bottle of milk. This is the free market capitalist system at work. Now imagine if somewhere along the milk production chain something became illegal, the result would be you not having your milk and all those people losing all the money earned from the milk chain, but say it didn’t become illegal, however it became more expensive to make, because of some regulation or tax, the result will be milk going up in price or someone along the way losing there job to make up for the loss . As a result you and those along the milk chain are hurt.
Now unfortunately this is case with most of our industries. They are being crushed with taxes up to their eyeballs and regulations flowing like water which results in a more expensive cost of living and/or fewer jobs and then to top it all off they say they are for capitalism. No there aren’t for capitalism, it’s these policies that are the exact opposite of capitalism, they’re preventing and/or interfering with the peoples right to pursue their self interest.
Finally we have the big government subsidies which make it impossible for anyone who isn’t receiving subsidies to compete which is depriving the individual the right to pursue his self interest, and also crushing competition which is essential in a free market. Just think of it if someone or some business wanted to start making and selling planes it would be impossible, because Boeing receives subsidies which in effect allows them to drop there price lower then a plane company without subsidies can. As a result if someone wanted to open a new plane company he would be put out of business immediately since he can’t charge as little as Boeing can since he isn’t receiving subsidies. Now you maybe wondering what difference does it make if there will be less competition.Well the result always of no or little competition is higher prices and less incentive to better the product or service and here will be no different. However some of you may be thinking well if the price goes up then the a new plane business can open up right? wrong because the business knows that the moment they open Boeing will drop its prices lower then they can. Which will result in putting them out of business and because of this no one will make the investment to open a new plane company and therefore there will be less competition. Resulting in more expensive planes which means more expensive airline tickets and less incentive for Boeing to better there planes.
With all this said I think we can now understand why people may not be so in love with capitalism. Therefore we must speak out loud and clear and explain what free market capitalism really is, and explain how running to socialism is not running away from your problems on the contrary it is running right into the kind of policies that made your problems in the first place. Just think for a moment we have not had a real free market system in a very long time. I think it is time we explain it, advocate for it, run on it and ultimately implement it.
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