Capitalism

Capitalism

kăp′ĭ-tl-ĭz″əm

noun

1.  An economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development occurs through the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.

It’s hard to imagine an institution that gets worse press, in comparison to the good it does, than capitalism.  Trendy young people, and older people who should know better, have publicly dedicated themselves to destroying it.  It seems uncharitable to believe that those who vow such things actually know what is it that they are trying to tear down.  They imagine “capitalism” to be the worst aspects of the world economic system, those features of commerce that make the rich richer and exploit the poor.  Huge established corporations and mysterious institutions (“the Fed, the IMF, the Bilderbergers!”) are the straw men for the vitriol aimed at capitalism.

Yet capitalism is not that at all.  On the contrary, it is, on the simplest level, the right of working persons to use their earnings as they choose – to accumulate capital and use it productively. 

For example, here is a simple example of capitalism.  Consider a waitress who likes to sew as a hobby.  The gifts she makes for her family and friends earn her compliments and encouragement, “You should go into business making those pretty aprons.”  So she sets aside some of her wages and buys a sewing machine.  With this tool she makes many more aprons, rents a table at the Christmas market, and sells enough to pay herself back for what she spent on the sewing machine.  That is capitalism in a nutshell:  she has accumulated cash, invested in capital equipment, and used the capital equipment to earn a profit.

Of course, when we use the word, “capital,” it calls to mind objects and funds:  houses, trucks, 401(k)s, businesses.  Yet in the modern economy it can take innumerable forms.  Setting up a website is, in a very significant sense, a capital investment, even if setting it up involves no physical purchases and we’re paying annual rent on the domain.  By the same token, taking a night course to learn new skills that can be used to increase our wages is itself a form of investment, even if not traditionally considered “capital.”.

So is capitalism inherently exploitive of the worker?  By no means.  Indeed, it is precisely that right, to make productive use of our earnings, that enables the working person to improve their situation, whether by buying a car, investing in a retirement fund, getting a degree, selling fancy cupcakes, or monetizing a Twitch stream.  The examples are endless.  The only way to “abolish” capitalism is to deprive people of the right to invest their cash as they see fit.  I think we all know that won’t improve anything for anybody. And it would hurt the average working person way more than it would the upscale social media darlings who ignorantly portray capitalism as a dirty business.