Posted on 08/09/2019 6:57:34 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Capitalism is getting a bad rap lately by the small but growing contingent of democratic socialists infecting Congress.
So what exactly is this threat from which they seek to save us?
Capitalism is based on free and voluntary exchange of goods. The only way you can prosper is to provide something other people want. If you are a farmer and produce wheat, someone else will exchange what he has produced (or use a medium of exchange such as money) to trade for your wheat.
No one is forced to do anything.
If you sell $1's worth of wheat to a billion people, you become a billionaire without robbing anyone or forcing anyone to do anything.
Socialism, fascism, communism, or any other form of a collective society where government-granted "rights" trump individual rights IS based on force.
Politicians decide who is deserving and who is not, and who shall prosper based not on their talents or contributions, but on their fealty.
Greed is not a feature of capitalism, but it is of socialism. Envy also is a feature of socialism. Politicians use it to divide and conquer. They pit people against each other by using race, wealth, or any other difference.
Free exchange in capitalism is not limited to the exchange of goods. If what you produce is labor, you can use that for exchange. Agreeing to produce a certain amount of labor for a certain amount of compensation in return is a private contract between employee and employer and is no business of anyone else. Either party can end the contract at will if dissatisfied.
Capitalists, on the other hand, compete for your favor by seeking to provide you more goods you want at less cost than anyone else.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Capitolism is freedom.
Capitalism has competition which always works for the benefit of the consumer. Socialism has a government-run monopoly which criminalizes competition.
A good start is stop using the Marxist term “capitalism” for the free market economy.
The free market is freedom is action. Argue on the basis of the free market economy which is the voluntary cooperation between buyers and sellers in the open competition of the marketplace free from government interference.
America in the 1800’s was a rare example in history of a truly free society. The feds were about 5% of the GDP - not really amounting to much in the average daily life. America’s market economy free from government interference thrived and America became the wealthiest country in the world with the average citizen in America better off than the average citizen anywhere else in the world.
The free market creates WEALTH. Government and socialism create POVERTY.
Friedman's answer is a classic.
The free market creates WEALTH. Government and socialism create POVERTY
I would add that while the free market creates wealth, the government and socialism confiscates wealth -by force.
I have perhaps a different definition of the word “greed” but I feel more accurate;
Greed is the desire and pursuit of unearned wealth.
They want to save us so they can have it for themselves just ask three million dollar mansion owner Bernie
Michael Douglas said, Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. The better word is ambition.
The many articles written about capitalism have convinced me that capitalism is not well understood. When you see a Capitalism vs. Socialism discussion you can be relatively sure someone doesn't realize that capitalism exist in all forms of government.
Capitalism is about capital, not government. The difference is in who controls the capital. America's Constitution constituted a government whose primary function protects the citizens rights to own and control their capital.
Be suspicious of the authors agenda who write articles about capitalism that doesn't reconcile with the facts.
Greed is not wanting to keep what is yours that youve earned. Greed is wanting something that you didnt earn that somebody else has. Envy is just as much destructive as greed could be. Dick Armey, Former House Majority Leader (R-TX), 1995-2003 and Chairman of Freedom Works, CSPAN Interview March 26, 2009
OK.
I would say the desire and pursuit of unearned wealth is probably more like theft.
People have bought the Leftist Lie hook, line, and sinker, that free enterprise is all about greed and the government must fix it.
First of all, if you’ll notice, the reality of God-given individual SELF INTEREST is never taught or talked about anymore. We are born with self interest. Without it we would die. Self interest is what makes the world go ‘round and what energizes people to create wealth for themselves but in doing so, unintentionally creates wealth in general (Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand”). So the Lying Left and government schools intentionally leave out self interest and only talk about greed as the motivation to do well and make money.
Self interest is healthy and good. The free market runs on and wealth is created by healthy self interest. Leftist brainwashing tries to judge or qualify self interest into “greed”. If someone (EXCEPT for government heads and officials) makes “too much money” they must be “greedy” (equivocal concept and definition the Lying Leftists use, like “racists” and “sexist”). So according to the Delusional Lying left, if you’re not in the government and you “make too much money” you’re “greedy”. Who buys this bull sh#t?
Government schools never teach self interest anymore because individual self interest opposes socialism and government force, coercion, and expansion. So in their own greed, socialist government DAMPENS individual self interest. The less government, the more individual self interest and the more wealth creation.
Meanwhile, the vortex of greed is socialist GOVERNMENT. This is where your definition comes into play as you said, and it goes further because whereas in the free market, buyers and sellers freely cooperate in the exchange of money, government coercion FORCES the exchange from you to them. GREED, AVARICE, and THEFT. Most of it legalized. So the Delusional Lying Left has legalized their own government greed while accusing free enterprise of greed. Hypocrites.
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