Capitalism is a very simple concept, baked into human nature:
- People often get an excess of something they possess.
- When they have that excess, they frequently will “capitalize” on it by using it for some other purpose. This will usually be toward gaining something else they like instead (e.g., extra eggs traded for money).
- When others agree to the transaction, the seller makes more wealth, and the other people get what they want.
- Often, someone gaining wealth from the exchange will find ways to make even more wealth. This includes renting instead of selling things, making something more efficient, or making something lower-quality for the same price.
- Over time, this builds out large-scale specializations.
This system is very old, and anyone even remotely street-smart understands the above.
However, there’s a very legitimate moral hazard for anyone who advocates for capitalism. They really don’t understand what they’re doing.
Capitalism’s Causes
As a simplified game theory, capitalists always act in good faith when there’s competition. Setting nice prices and a good product guarantees people come back for more of the same later.
However, this is a specific tit-for-tat arrangement, and the capitalist is only acting in others’ interest for selfish reasons. The capitalizing party is only accountable to the consuming party because they’re afraid of adverse consequences.
This, however, is a tenuous arrangement. This changes if that person were to, say, own 98% of the market for their little niche. At that point, they don’t have any selfish reason anymore to set fair prices.
And we therefore fall back onto human nature, which is painfully predictable across large groups:
- Children know how to break rules automatically, and we don’t need to teach people how to be evil.
- Teaching people to be good doesn’t work for the people who still want to do whatever they want.
- Historically, entire ethics committees can become collectively corrupt.
Unfortunately, there are some very bad moral beliefs that are absolutely not true:
- More education doesn’t make people more moral. It only makes them more dangerous.
- Intelligence doesn’t correlate with morality, and can often empower very evil people.
- Most consumers aren’t that moral. People often pay the lowest price for something, even when they know slaves made it.
Therefore, capitalism is a type of symptom of the human condition. We could almost call it a disease if we wanted.
The Marxist Lie
On the other hand, a broad leftist ideology has created a popular counterclaim starting in the 19th century:
- People find meaning in the work they produce.
- Capitalists are evil and exploit people.
- If we remove all capital and abolish private property altogether, people will live in harmony with one another.
The leftist lie is that humanity is inherently good, which means that deposing the tyrants will solve the world’s problems. It also completely misrepresents how we find meaning.
This is only possible if we change human nature, which hasn’t collectively happened in all of written history. We have never seen evil decrease simply because a government collapsed.
However, this lie sticks around due to several reasons:
- Nobody has to blame themselves for contributing to the problem. They can blame the big evil corporations.
- Anyone who makes very little money has the chance to get free stuff.
- Anyone who makes a lot of money can look like a good person to the unwashed masses.
Therefore, we will see Neo-Marxism as long as society has its professional victims.
The False Contrast
The presence of Marxism provides another issue because it implies a contrasting spectrum across human nature. Many academics speak like capitalism is on the opposite side of Marxism.
However, I propose that this dichotomy severs everyone’s imagination. Capitalism is actually in the middle between two extremes:
- An idealized, utopian abdication of personal property. In practice this becomes a centralized government running everyone’s private lives.
- A militarized conquering of one’s neighbors to gain whatever one wants. It starts going there when monopolization sets in.
The Unfortunate Consequence
This capitalism also has a weak point nobody talks about, specifically with the presence of fools.
Scams notwithstanding, there will always be foolish people out there. Many people have zero desire to make wise decisions with money.
In any society where people can freely make decisions, people also have the freedom at some level to be stupid. If we have the natural right to make good decisions, we also have the right to make bad ones.
This means that predatory and immoral capitalists take advantage of these bad decision-makers. 95% of the capitalists are selling reasonably priced strawberries, mortgages, and smartphones. A minority of capitalists fleece the most reckless consumers with pawn shops, payday loans, dumb car features, and smartphone accessories.
The Unspoken Shame
The fact that we even have capitalism, however, should not be praiseworthy. It literally empowers slavery and reproduces the Babylonian pyramid prevalent through all written history.
There is nothing moral about people willing to make a profit by doing something everyone loves. It’s pro-social, sure, but it’s still clearly selfish.
The fact that it has, and will, persist is a sign of how morally bankrupt we all are. It’s the best possible solution, and all other solutions are worse.
I have my own solution for that, but that’s an entirely unrelated religious discussion.