Freedom Friday, a little late

An interesting article I found...enjoy or not.

WHY CAPITALISM WORKS BEST By Matthew Burke
June 14, 2009

Why does capitalism work best? Capitalism works best because it is the only social and economic system that aligns itself with the combined human spirits of achievement, ambition, self-improvement, individualism, self-esteem, and initiative.

Capitalism is not perfect, by any means. No system made up of imperfect human beings has been, nor can be. However, capitalism comes closest in bringing out the best in society because it appeals to our highest ideals of individual rights which come in the form of economic freedom. Capitalism is a system based on the firm establishment of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned.

Granted, and to the shocking surprise of some of you, this is not the system we have, or have had during the last century in the United States. When I say "capitalism," I mean pure, unadulterated, unfiltered, laissez-faire capitalism, with a total separation of the government from the economic system where the only real function of government is one of protecting individual rights (instead of studying tree frog mating habits or hog stench, etc.) and protecting him or her from physical force.

Capitalism demands the very best of every person and rewards him or her according to his efforts accordingly. It allows anyone the freedom to choose the work or business of their skill and interest, and to trade that labor or product for either the equivalent monetary value, or an equally desirable product or service in trade (which the IRS would now still tax!). The value of a person's work is determined by the free market where there is a 100% correlation between the value added to society and the compensation earned in return.

There is such a plethora of distortion, misinformation, misrepresentation, and outright falsehoods about capitalism today that the upcoming generation of young people actually think that there may be other superior or equal systems to be tried, like socialism, which has failed to produce anywhere near the broad degree of wealth enjoyed by the people of the United States.

In a capitalist society, all transactions are voluntary. For example, banks would not be coerced to make loans to people that wouldn't be able to repay them for the "betterment" of society (the root of the current economic mess). No person or group may initiate the use of physical force against others.

"But wait," you say. "I thought we weren't a pure capitalist society, Mr. Capitalist." You are correct. We aren't. But, we have allowed more economic freedom than other countries which has correlated into more economic wealth for more people than any other place on the planet.

Another interesting article by the same author here