It’s difficult to effectively teach others about something you don’t understand. It’s even tougher when the subject is something you despise. So, if you live in Colorado and expect your children to learn anything truthful about free-market capitalism, you had better teach them at home.
The Colorado Teachers Association (the state’s teachers’ union) recently passed a resolution expressing its belief that "Capitalism inherently exploits children, public schools, land, labor and resources," and opposes "fully addressing systemic racism... climate change, patriarchy (gender and LGBTQ disparities), education inequality and income inequality." And that was the toned down version!
I thought it was a bad thing when the teachers’ unions fought to keep schools closed during the pandemic. But maybe in Colorado kids are better off staying home if at school they are taught by people who believe this kind of leftist claptrap.
So, let’s set the record straight.
Capitalism is the greatest engine for relieving human suffering ever devised by the mind of man.
As President Barack Obama stated in 2015, "[w]e do not dispute that the free market is the greatest producer of wealth in history" and "has lifted billions of people out of poverty." He was right. As free-market capitalism spread across the globe beginning in the early 1800s, economic productivity per person (GDP per capita) has soared while the percentage of people living in extreme poverty has fallen off a cliff – dropping from about 90% in 1820 to under 9% today (according to the World Bank).
Wealth soars, poverty plummets. Sounds like a pretty good system.
But did capitalism achieve these laudable goals by encouraging greed, exploitation and inequality as the Colorado teachers’ union professes?
Nope. In fact, the opposite is true.
As any businessman or woman can attest, you only succeed in a capitalist economy by meeting the needs of other people – that is, by providing the products or services other people want at a price they can afford. To be a successful capitalist, you have to shift your personal focus outward, to the needs and wants of others – your customers. That’s closer to altruism than greed.
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Capitalism is a form of economic democracy, where consumers vote with every dollar they spend, determining which businesses succeed and which fail. Businesses need your vote for success, and they compete for that vote. Think about the thousands of products in your local grocery store, shopping mall, or on Amazon, all vying for your attention. Each of these products represent an entrepreneur striving to meet your needs as the way to achieve their own success.
In fact, in a capitalist economy, the level of your personal success depends on how well you meet the needs of others. Henry Ford built cars for the common man and woman, not the nobility of his day. Steve Jobs created smart phones for all of us, not government elites. Jeff Bezos became the richest man in the world because he created Amazon, the greatest distribution system in the history of the world.
These individuals became wealthy because they were especially good at providing the rest of us with things we wanted at prices we could afford. Throughout our history, self-made men and women at all levels of our economy have forged ahead with innovative ideas and solutions that created jobs, wealth and prosperity not only for themselves but for our entire nation, improving the lives of their fellow citizens and the human condition.
That’s how capitalism works, creating prosperity and abundance.
Contrast that with the moral incentives of socialist economies – which inevitably result in poverty and want. Under socialism, the way to get wealth is to gain power or curry the favor of the powerful. In other words, the more socialist an economy is – the more the state controls investment, labor and production – the more it pays to cater to the big shots than to the great mass of people whose individual decisions move the invisible hand of capitalist systems.
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Don’t believe me? In the impoverished socialist paradise of Cuba, Fidel Castro owned 20 homes and a yacht – and his family and friends did pretty well too.
It’s good to keep in mind that capitalism is neither a religion nor an ethical creed that purports to have all the answers on how we should live our lives. It’s an economic system. While it encourages altruistic behavior, it cannot by itself create a society where people care about each other and treat each other as they should.
That’s why healthy societies need not just free economies but also healthy families, strong religious organizations, supportive communities, flourishing arts, and other agencies through which people find love, moral clarity, inspiration and emotional stability.
In short, capitalism expands the range of freedom in our occupational lives while encouraging us to satisfy the needs of others. In so doing, it empowers us to create the wealth that supports real charity for the helpless and real opportunities for those willing and able to help themselves. It has enriched our lives and greatly reduced the plague of poverty that dominated human existence for millennia.
Unfortunately, students in Colorado will never learn any of this in school – not if the union that represents their teachers has its way. Rather, they will be fed a Marxist laundry list of grievances by the very people their parents trust to educate them.
