If you grew up in the America of the 20th century, you came of age in a society in which capitalistic principles -- you work, you get ahead, you keep what you earn, minus taxes -- were pretty much assumed.
You also knew well and heard often of the totalitarian societies where nearly all property was "shared," and where the collective -- the government, in other words -- made most financial decisions for the people. It always seemed a system that was foreign to the American way of life, not something most of us would want to live under. Something, ultimately, that the Constitution protected us from.
That's not so true today.
Young Americans have grown up entirely out from under the menacing shadow of our Cold War enemies. As a result, we've soft-pedaled the threat of collectivism and communism, perhaps failing to educate our children, as we were, in the ways of the world.
This is why a young man in Wisconsin, an avowed socialist, can, in all seriousness, suggest to an interviewer that the fast-food restaurant where he works is a "dictatorship" that requires its takeover by the workers in order to free them.
"You either work for someone else or you work for yourself," the earnest young man tells the camera. "And most people work for someone else in a way that they aren't free. You don't really get to decide your work. For example, I work at Noodles, a restaurant, and basically it's a dictatorship there. We're told exactly what we're going to cook, how we're going to cook it, what time we're going to get there. And basically if they don't like what we're doing, they try and tell us what to do. If we don't listen, they get rid of us."
The young man goes on to suggest the workers might keep the restaurant's owner on after the takeover, if he would agree to cooperate as an equal and "abdicate" his role as owner.
Never mind that the owner had conceived of the restaurant and spent untold hours and money and assumed frightening financial risk in bringing it to life. It's here now for the taking!
What is this otherwise highly-functioning young man thinking? Forget the immorality of taking someone else's property, intellectual and otherwise: From a purely practical point of view, if the restaurant's employees were, for instance, free to come and go as they please, and cook noodles to whatever consistency they like, how long would the business exist? What would the young man then eat? Frozen squirrel?
The ignorance and naivete is as chilling as a Wisconsin winter.
It -- and maybe the fact that the Wisconsin AFL-CIO and the International Socialist Organization have strikingly similar logos -- should be a shrill wake-up call to America: We have failed to sell the benefits of capitalism, or to explain the dangers of every other system.
Our schools, our civic clubs, our chambers of commerce and other organizations need to come together to sell capitalism again to our young -- how it has lifted up human living standards while allowing us to live free as never before in human history.
It's an incredible, uplifting story -- one that we hope comes not too late for this and future generations.
Why aren't our schools telling it?
I'll agree that there's a failure of communication. It would help if everyone from the national CoC on down would make a stand for sustainable business practice and advocate for companies smaller than Koch Industries, et al.
Capitalism, capitalism, capitalism!!! It's what the alchemists sought. A way to make gold out of nothing. Give me a barren country with no natural assets and with a capitalistic society and no government interference it will be paradice in 20 years. People working for themselves without worrying if they've been there 8 hours or 18. Give me a dead Billy Mays doing informercials late at night. Capitalism. Love it.
No you pay a man what the job is worth. In capitalism, the job is more important than the man filling the position. That is why the man should work hard to always do his best all of the time. And it is why people that have competitve jobs make the most.
RA said, "One of the posters here in the last couple of days pointed out a fact that I reiterate here, it is against God's Holy Will to pay a man less than he can live on."
I'll buy that. If someone is unable to earn enough working to eat and have shelter, yet he is not spending foolishly, he deserves help. But it shouldn't be government handouts because that interferes with capitalism. It has to be via private donations of individuals and charities. Few people working even making minimum wage are homeless and hungry if they are frugal.
Capitalism is an wonderful but dangerous notion. It gives freedom to come up with ideas, take the risk and enjoy the rewards, but when banded together with government policies that only reward the business and not the people it is what we have today, a governement that feels it can spend its way out of debt, make the lower people pay for it, and reward the affluent by hearing their cries before any one elses. Their has to be a check and balance in capitalism that not only helps it grow, but protects the people's interest. Riverman, I like the quote from RA also, it is so true to not pay a man (or woman) what he is worth and what they give to you as a worker.
Sadly, ACES, capitalism sells itself, through television, radio, newspaper and any other form of media. Young people are buying the latest gadgets, games, the newest fashions, and trends. Let's not get onto the political side of capitalism, where the lines no longer exist and your staunchest capitalist may truly become your next dictator, if given the correct political allies through the love of greed and power.
Reading this makes me ever so glad that I've started teaching George Orwell's "Animal Farm" in my sophomore English classes. If the other workers at Noodles are tempted to join the overthrow, they might want to see how things turn out for the non-pigs in the end...and the novel wasn't even written by a capitalist.
Actually the example the young man sets forth is an example of capitalism. Hello! Steve Jobs was one of the founders of Apple, but once that went public he got fired.
As for trying to convince people capitalism is pure black and white as the editors would believe, then you would have to make it simply about supply and demand. If it is that easy, please explain why speculation, not real demand often dictates prices. Please explain price fixing and collusion.
Also explain why under this system, the gap between the haves and have nots keeps growing, or is it supposed to work that way until the smaller percentage at the top own everything and everyone else has nothing?
Am I socialist? No, but I know no system is perfect and there has to be some checks. Pure capitalism, would be awful. Thankful we do not truly have that and never will as long as some people have common sense and are not suckers like most commenters here on this board too blind to see those ultra rich at the top give a darn about them and just want to use them.
American's need to start focusing on the individual again, not the collective or all of society.
By focusing on individualism you demand reponsibility, hard work, maturity, planning and character. You and you alone are responsible for your fate.
By focusing on the collective you end up with shallow ctizens and mediocre workers who don't even need to plan because someone else's hard work will bail them out. It is bad for society and society will not survive for the long term to under those conditions.
Focusing on the collective and putting us into groups makes it is easy for politicians to take one group & pit them against another group. Sound familiar?
We are not socialists, we are not communists, we are a nation of individuals. Lets start acting like it. Socialism or communism is not cool - it is a horrible way of life.
The gap between rich and poor grows because of a system of taxation which discourages investment; a system that because of benefits awarded to certain sectors of the economy places the burden of government on producers, while subsidising an ever-growing population that produces . . . nothing, and contributes the same to the country-- other than reliable Democratic voters. The problem is not one of capitalism; the problem is the rapacity of government for the money the capitalists produce to support an increasingly untenable social program.
"Few people working even making minimum wage are homeless and hungry if they are frugal."
Riverman, sorry, I don't agree with you. $16,500 per year is not enough for one person to live on and support themselves.
Check out what the rent is even in slum areas. Remember that house in Harrisburg, owned by Dan Weigle, that was condemned? That rented for $500 per month. And that was rent only, not utilities, and it was unsafe and not fit to live in. That's what $500 per month gets you in Augusta.
There is a severe shortage of housing in the CSRA for single working people. It used to be that people rented rooms in boarding houses; now, those are illegal. Or you could rent a room at the Y. That's gone now too.
Frugal? Do you think that people don't need clothing, medicine, doctors, food, utilities, transportation? And someone is supposed to afford all that on $16,500 per year? Been to the doctor lately? Had a hospitalization lately? Had a chronic medical condition lately? Had to buy medicine and pay retail prices lately? Bought a pair of shoes lately?
If you're hospitalized, a person could easily run up a $16,500 bill in one day.
And almost all people in the United States end up disabled for at least 6 weeks, at least once in their adult lives.
You want charities and individuals to help people in need. My extended family is a perfect example of what many American families face today. My brother in law, 80 and very sick; my sister in law, 62 and disabled; my brother, 55 and sick; my son and his family of 4, part of the working poor.
If you have the means to support 5 households simultaneously, then you are very fortunate. We don't, and neither does anyone else that I know.
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