In Defense of Capitalism

We have all been there before.

Politics, as it sometimes does, comes up while you’re at the office. It’s impossible for a topic like politics to not eventually arise when you’re dealing with and working with the same people week after week. I don’t mind political talk. I’m not one of those people who thinks it’s taboo to discuss some of your more deep seeded opinions on various topics. I believe a glut of diverse opinions is the best way to strengthen your own views, or even change your mind completely by forcing yourself to examine someone else’s outlook. It can really be eye-opening. I think discussion should always be open on anything, no matter what it is. This, however, is sometimes difficult with certain people, who, when debating contrasting opinions, completely lose their minds, go flush with anger and shut down any opposition immediately as DEAD WRONG. Either that, or they just push themselves from the conversation and walk away.

That’s one thing that I just can’t stand. The assumption that you already know everything there is to know about a subject and if your don’t agree with me, you’re wrong, is wrong. It’s attitudes like that that lead me to the point of this latest blog post.

I’m sure in your minds-eye you can picture this person perfectly. In my experiences, they’re either an aging baby boomer claiming that capitalism is the reason why they haven’t had a “successful” life or a young mid-twenties hipster looking to change the culture of hate and segregation that Canadian life apparently allows to blossom. Apparently.

Thankfully, my latest struggle was with an aging baby boomer, not the mid-twenties hipster. You can at least hold a conversation with the baby-boomer without being reminded how much conservatives hate gays, women, first nations… etc. etc.

This co-worker of mine, who I actually like, yesterday starting going off on capitalism and how it doesn’t work for the middle class. He explained how it held him back from accomplishing his goals, how it stopped him from moving up in the company, how I wouldn’t succeed because of it, how it didn’t allow him to be able to purchase home… blah blah blah. Basically, everything bad that has ever happened to him in his entire life is the fault of capitalism. I’m sorry, but that is a crock of crap, if I can quote Wayne Gretzky all the way back in Salt Lake City during the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Firstly, my biggest problem with that ideology is it’s flat out defeatist. It’s an excuse. It’s passing the buck. It’s a viewpoint that takes zero responsibility for your own actions. It’s looking in the mirror and pointing your finger at… that guy… you see him in the back? He’s rich. He takes pleasure in my poverty. It’s his fault. Pretty much how you would expect a toddler to deal with being in trouble after causing a disturbance of some sort.

When you consider yourself a “have-not,” it’s easy to look around at everyone else and be envious. I’m guilty of the same thing, but I use it to drive myself to be better. I want what those people have and I’m going to get it. Period. End of story. I don’t sit at my desk and sourly rip on the current economic system (which has provided us with by far the best and highest standard of living in the history of man-kind) as the main factor in why I barely make it month-to-month. These people seem to refuse to take any personal responsibility. I can just read their minds:

“I couldn’t be the reason that I’m 60+ years old and still live paycheck-to-paycheck. It couldn’t possible have anything to do with bad fiscal decisions or poor savings and retirement planning. My current position at my company and my abject financial position as not my doing. Capitalism is the underlining cause! I’m the victim of a government institution catering to greed!”

How can you blame ones poverty on the wealth of another? I feel like these people directly lie to themselves, so much, that they actually eventually believe it. Otherwise, I don’t understand how someone can be so self-unaware and diluted. Why is it so difficult for these people to look at themselves before looking outward. In this country, at this time in history, there is no justification for blaming other. Of course there are exceptions, but lets not get all bogged down with semantics. For 95% of the population, you, and only you, are to blame of your ongoing position in life.

Also, I think that it’s ridiculously selfish to think that capitalism and the prosperity of corporations are reasons enough for you to be pulling in +300K a year. So, you’re entitled to all of the most wonderful things in our country just because you… showed up? Generally speaking, since when has the world, at any point in history, rewarded those who just showed up?

People who blame the system for keeping their heads underwater, I believe, are ignorant to history and present day conditions. Honestly, I feel like most complex issues are due to historical disregard. Capitalism keeps the peace between the world powers. So much money is passing between countries like the US, Canada, Russia, Germany, the UK, France, Japan and China because of trade agreements and consumerism (also triggered by capitalism) that they simply can’t turn off the taps. Countries before would go to war over trivial things, but the richness of these countries and the world economy has kept them off the battlefield going head-to-head for over 70 years.

Capitalism freed the poor of Europe and the world from the nobles and elites of society. Finally, something other then blood and birth status gave people power. It was capitalism that gave the little guy a say. It was capitalism that turned an individual who was born a peasant into a politician to create necessary and needed change. It allowed the farmer, working like a slave for the crown, to find another job with someone from the same class. It allowed those individual to grow within that business and develop new fields and operations. Capitalism expanded the arts. It allowed actors, artists, writers, play-writes and creative minds to be able to charge, sell and profit from their works, granting them more money and more time to focus on their craft. Capitalism spurred on ingenuity, giving the inventor an incentive to invent, sell and provide jobs. Capitalism opened up several new ways to collect taxes, instead of just putting everything on the poor. Capitalism allowed ships and its captains to ferry immigrants from Europe to the Americas in search of a better life. The conditions and some of the steep unfair fees for the journey were no doubt terrible, but how else would those people have made the crossing? I can say with certainty that the countries the settlers were leaving wouldn’t have forked up.

A television series by James Burke, I think, does an amazing job of following the trail of inventions threw history and how everything is profoundly connected. Capitalism was, and remains, one of the most important developments in the history of our civilization.

I could keep going on and on about how capitalism actually effectively changed the world for by and large the greater good, such as in education, agriculture, and the economy, but I feel like my point is getting superfluous. Don’t get me wrong, however, even though I am a supporter of capitalism, the economic system is far from perfect. Evil has been done in the name of money. That cannot be denied outside of a mental institution. The question remains, how do you perfect capitalism and eliminate that undesired byproduct? That is an impossibility, because on this bright blue aqua covered planet that we call home, not one person on it’s surface is perfect…… not even me. I know. You’re shocked.

Evolution over the many millions of years gave us something that helped us survive, greed. Now, that might sound like one of the seven deadly sins (which it of course is), but it has been essential to our survival. How many wolf packs give meat to other starving packs? Does one of your house cats enjoy sharing it’s food with another? It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there. Always has been and always will be. There will always and forever be winners and loser. So, unless we can remove greed and competition (traits embedded deep into our past for thousands and thousands of years) from homo sapiens we aren’t going anywhere. Good luck with that. There will never be a system that takes the human out of the human. We are what we are and nothing, not even a structure that pretends to care for all it’s citizens, promising them all their desired riches, can change human nature. I prefer to live in a reality that takes those traits and turns them into something that everyone can benefit from. A reality that turns aside philosophical theories pulled out of thin air stemming from a fantastical desire that everyone shares everything and money is not needed. Instead, I prefer a practical system that in all respects is human nature in a nut shell.

To crack it all you need is a little bit elbow grease and the right tool for the job.

Penned by Jack Madelyn.

My Opening Statement

Alright. Here goes nothing.

This is something that I have wanted to do for a long time,

but for whatever reason, I haven’t gotten around to doing it. Is it laziness? Fear to put my opinions out there? Probably a little from column A and a little from column B. My mind recently has been changed, however, and I feel like my voice needs to be heard. I feel that most people in the country and on this continent think somewhere along the same lines as I do, but are afraid to voice their opinion. Whether it be in the office, at the playground, talking to a parent, at school, with family, it doesn’t matter. The opinions and views of everyday Canadians are being boxed out by the politically-correct enforcers, bullying anyone who may present a valid or diverse opinion on a subject. Heaven forbid someone doesn’t share your same perception of the world. They must be some kind of gay-hating anti-science racist.

If you listen hard enough, you can hear it;

“What?! This person doesn’t support women wearing niqabs and burkas during Canadian citizenship swearing-in ceremonies?! Bigot. Islamophobe. Knuckle-dragger.”

More of that here.

You know the person. That left-wing extremist still clinging onto the notion that in the right framework, with the proper checks and balances, communism (or some sort of “share the wealth” economy) could actually work.

This is an interesting article that I recently came across while browsing through the internet. This one I found on Reddit. I think is sums up the dangers of an over-socialized system taking over.

Here it is.

Now, before I move forward, Boris Yeltsin was no saint. His era was marked by widespread corruption and he left office (handing things off to then Prime-Minister Vladimir Putin in 1999) widely unpopular with the Russian population.

However, It doesn’t change the fact that his trip to a Texas supermarket changed his mind about the economic policies of his country, which eventually lead to real change and the end of the Soviet Union. I would say that’s a big victory.

Anyways, this is just an introductory piece. Getting my feet wet, as they say. But if you happen to stumble across this blog and take the time to read this (thank you, by the way) I wanted to sort of make a debut post to give you, the reader, an understanding of where I will be taking things. Now, the topics discussed above will definitely be a part of this blog, no question about it. I think they’re questions that could eventually shake our nation all the way down to our foundations, but it’s in no way exclusive. I also plan on touching on other important issues that make me stop, look and listen. Such as, the war on drugs, the role of religion and churches in our communities, sports, entertainment, bureaucracy, environmental protection, the hypocrisy and (frankly embarrassingly obvious) bias of certain members of the media. As events happen, I will be on top of them.

Let’s get started.

Penned by Jack Madelyn.