Capitalism – Is It a Good or a Bad Thing?

A short view on some basic thoughts around capitalism.

Why do some interpretations of capitalism have some people thinking its a bad thing?

The main argument that says capitalism is bad goes like this: people need to be controlled or the greedy and powerful will use the good hard-working people and destroy the earth. A little harsh?  Maybe you can say capitalism is bad as the world is made up of sheep and wolves and the wolves will destroy and take what they want from the sheep even if it is unfair and inhuman.

Some believe that capitalists lack compassion and understanding about the suffering of people.

With this belief in mind now let’s ask ourselves why capitalism is so good?

To understand why capitalism is good to consider the alternative…

There will always be greedy and powerful people, but under socialism, the power is given to bureaucrats and not too creative people called entrepreneurs. The people here who suffered the most are the poor and middle class.

Bureaucrats under a non-capitalist system actualized their greed for power by using the government and law to keep their power and keep up the status quo and not competing freely with the rest of society.  The government becomes the funnel for income redistribution penalizing the hard-working and creative and rewarding special interests.

Capitalism believes that men are basically good and when they act on their enlighten self-interest society as a whole is lifted to a higher level, just compare North Korea and South Korea for a moment.  Or where would you have rather live West German or East German?

Capitalism allows everyone to be the best that they can be.

Capitalism is the most compassionate form of economics as it gives everyone a chance.