The Assault on “Capitalism”
“Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.” ~John Maynard Keynes
This quote is disturbing on a few levels. First, only Keynes would say “most wickedest”…unless he said it purposefully wrong, but then I would love to assume that most of what he said was purposefully wrong. That point is trivial when held to the main point driving this quote though. Only businessmen are wicked and greedy. He, like Michael Moore, Karl Marx, and Obama seem to think that capitalism is the true enemy of the “greatest good” because apparently greed and wickedness only occurs in business, not in government. The assertion here is that government needs to regulate the market because if they don’t, all the wicked men in business will only make decisions that hurt people and get them money. HA! And then also somehow government is absolved of the same accusation. Money and power go together so why in the world would these leftists think that the center of power in this or any country, that is, government, would be devoid of greed, corruption, and all-around wickedness?
It’s the old Marxist theory of the government serving the “greater good” by controlling everything; as if temptation, greed, wickedness, and pursuit of self-gain does not touch those who have the good intention of serving the “greater good”. Now don’t get me wrong, I am no fan of corporate greed and pursuit of monetary gain at all costs (it’s one of the reasons I have such a de facto disdain for government in my ideology). But to think that government is the answer to guard the greater good from greed and corruption is laughable. Scratch that, it’s downright insane. If anything, in free market theory, the “invisible hand” keeps man’s greed in business in check better than any other entity. Now it’s not that the invisible hand is infallible or even totally reliable…but it beats the snot out of deferring to government or any kind of government controlled “capitalism”…which brings me to my next point…
I put “capitalism” in quotes because in my mind, what we have (and have had for generations) in this country by way of an economic model is certainly not capitalism. True capitalism, by definition, insinuates that the means of production are privately controlled. In general, the means of production in this country have not been privately controlled for decades. We have had a mish-mash of quasi-privatization coupled with seemingly arbitrary government regulation for quite some time now. To say that model is a failure is absolutely accurate. To say it is capitalism is absolutely not.
Let me reiterate that I don’t necessarily think that capitalism is the be-all, end-all of civilized society. I think it spells out the best economic model we could hope for, but it certainly does not mean that my whole vision of politics and American life could be boiled down to a free-market theory of unintentionally-executed ethics. I don’t think that the solution to all of our political woes is a capitalistic or free-market driven economy. I think that our approach to economics is entirely hinged on our understanding of liberty: what it is, where it comes from, and how it is sustained to the benefit of all. In my mind, the “greatest good” is to allow each citizen in a society the greatest amount of freedom. This includes whatever economic model we choose. But to say that government manipulation of our economy somehow spells out capitalism and its shortcomings is ridiculous…quite the contrary, government manipulation of our economy is exactly why this economic model has failed.
But, you’ll not hear this mentioned in the mainstream because political hacks and wannabe denizens of the “greater good” refuse to acknowledge their error in defining what the real problem is. They refuse to smell the stink of government involvement in the private sector. They refuse to recognize that everything government touches usually turns to…well I won’t say what I’m thinking here because this is a family show. You get the idea. Show me a government in the “civilized” world that has not fouled up whatever it has set its hand to, and I’ll show you a content and happy people (hint: there is no such thing…I invite you to prove me wrong…).
All that to say, one of these days, we are all going to have to wake up enough to stop swallowing what the government (and the media that is in bed with it) keeps spewing. We need to start standing up for ourselves and stop allowing these “well-intentioned” dictocrats to tell us what is “good for us”. If you truly know thyself, you should have a decent understanding of what you need. Don’t let government officials do the thinking for you. It’s time for us to stop regurgitating the same tired lines about the same tired things and start reasoning for ourselves. It’s time to stop taking every politician at their word in hopes that maybe this time they actually mean it; or will actually do what they say they are going to do; or will actually “change” something (that is, for the better).
Greed and wickedness are everywhere folks…stop looking to government to save you. As best as I can tell, the greed and wickedness start in government as much as anywhere so they are certainly not your solution. And though I’m sure there are plenty of people that work in government out of a true desire to help, it’s the officials that give them their marching orders that need to be tarred and feathered. Give the government back to the people and you will find a happy people. But don’t wait for government to hand itself back to the people. The people are going to have to take it back.
Peace…