Capitalism: the only road to opulence
Speaking on wealth creation, President John F. Kennedy famously noted that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” This assertion reveals a fundamental truth behind the power of the free market: when wealth is created in a true capitalist system, it inevitably spreads to all levels of society.
The veracity of this is proven in The Capitalist Manifesto -- a simple text from influential supply-siders Ralph Benko and William Collier -- published earlier this week. The text expertly defines how “True Capitalism” stands in direct opposition to its enemy from the left -- socialism -- and its enemy from within -- crony capitalism. The authors contrast “True Capitalism” to the “New Feudalism” promoted by socialists and “some of Capitalism’s own merchants.”
Within the Manifesto’s first pages, Benko and Collier identify a major problem that we now face: a growing number of people view socialism favorably. As noted free-market economist F.A. Hayek observed in 1949: “Once freedom has been achieved it is taken for granted and ceases to be valued.”
A growing number of people today have never known a world without the freedom offered by capitalism and they are increasingly devaluing it while turning to alternative economic philosophies (i.e. socialism).
The authors show that much of the disillusionment with capitalism is driven by its enemy from within. Cronyists -- or so-called “merchants of capitalism” -- undermine free-market principles by jumping in bed with big government to block their competition and establish a quasi-feudal market. This system, masquerading as capitalism, is the culprit behind the public’s waning trust in the free market.
We see a key distinction between these systems when the authors declare, “Feudalism rewards people based on their social status. True Capitalism rewards people based on their contribution to the general welfare.”
Benko and Collier show the success of capitalism and supply-side economics in massive wealth creation, especially during the Reagan years. The system drove up standards of living, made education and healthcare more accessible, and saw extreme poverty plummet. They also describe the “Kitchen Debate” between then-vice president Richard Nixon and Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev, where Nixon pointed out that under America’s capitalist system, a steelworker making $3 per hour could afford a $14,000 home filled with luxuries unknown to the average Soviet -- a great illustration of magnificent wealth creation in the United States.
This, as Benko and Collier point out, is the universal opulence that True Capitalism allows: equitable prosperity expanding to all layers of society. There are only four “secret ingredients” to this prosperity:
“There is capital, the means of production. There is labor, those who work to build the products or provide the services. There are the materials employed by capital and labor to create finished products. There are the means to market, sell, and deliver the products.”
These basic components combined inevitably spread wealth to the people who exercise them.
But perhaps their biggest idea is the “Capitalist Ten Commandments.” These “Commandments” share a vision of a capitalist utopia where the government’s role in the economy is severely limited, creating the grounds for expansive wealth creation.
Much in the way that Marx and Engels called for a worldwide movement to overthrow the “bourgeoisie,” Benko and Collier call for a movement to “Build the liberal [True Capitalist] utopia.” This echoes Hayek’s call for such a movement and is largely directed at young people to defend and renew capitalism. The authors present a compelling case that capitalism is the only road to universal opulence.
Nathan Williamson is a conservative activist and writer. His economic commentary has appeared in multiple online outlets.
Despite a booming economy, many U.S.
households are still just holding on
https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-recovery-that-never-happened-except.html
"One of the premier
institutions of big business, JP Morgan Chase, issued
an internal report on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the 2008
crash, which warned that another “great liquidity crisis”
was possible, and that a government bailout on the scale of that
effected by Bush and Obama will produce social unrest, “in light of
the potential impact of central bank actions in driving
inequality between asset owners and labor."
Seventy percent of US Millennials say they are
likely to vote socialist
The fourth annual
report on “US Attitudes Toward Socialism, Communism, and Collectivism,”
commissioned by the anticommunist Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and
conducted by YouGov, found a sharp growth in interest in socialism among youth
in the US over the past year.
The study has been
conducted annually since 2016 and bases itself on interviews with over 2,000
people.
This years’ results
reveal a significant radicalization taking place among youth, particularly in
the Millennial Generation (those aged 23-38) and Gen Z (aged 16-22). Compared
to last year’s report, favorable views of capitalism dropped 6 percentage
points and 8 percentage points for Gen Z and Millennials, respectively.
Other notable findings
include:
* 70 percent of
Millennials say they would be “somewhat likely” or “extremely likely” to vote
for a socialist candidate. The percentage of Millennials who say they would be
extremely likely to vote for a socialist candidate has doubled (from 10 percent
in 2018 to 20 percent in 2019).
* Overall, 83 percent
say they know at least a little about socialism, and 39 percent of Americans
say they “know a lot”—a nearly 40 percent increase from 2018.
* Nearly half of
Millennials think the government should provide a job to everyone who wants to
work but cannot find it.
* Forty percent of
Americans (45 percent of Gen Z and Millennials) think all higher education
should be free.
* Around one in five
Millennials thinks society would be better off if all private property were
abolished.
* Seventy percent of
Americans say the divide between the rich and the poor is a serious issue.
* Of the more than
half (63 percent) of Americans who think the highest earners are “not paying
their fair share,” 54 percent think increased taxes are part of the answer, and
47 percent say a complete change of the economic system is needed.
* Thirty-seven percent
of Millennials think the US is one of the most unequal societies in the world.
* Over a quarter of
Americans across all generations said Donald Trump is the biggest threat to
world peace.
The source of this
radicalization is not hard to find. The chief characteristic of life for
Millennials and Gen Z has been skyrocketing social inequality. Many are forced
to work two, three or even four jobs to make ends meet. One in five millennials
is living below the poverty line.
The growing interest
in and support for socialism coincides with a significant growth of class
struggle and social protest internationally. In Lebanon, massive protests have
brought an estimated one quarter of the country’s six million people onto the
streets. In Chile, millions of people continue to flood the streets protesting
social inequality and state violence in the largest demonstrations in the
country’s history.
In the US, the strike
by 32,000 Chicago teachers and support staff is in its second week, following
the largest autoworker strike in 30 years by GM workers.
This eruption of the
class struggle on a global scale terrifies the ruling class. They are acutely
aware of social tensions and the growing interest in socialism.
The response of the
Trump administration has been an open turn towards fascistic and authoritarian
forms of rule. His hysterical denunciations of socialism, now a feature of
nearly every rally, express the growing fear of the rich that demands for
social reform will set off a mass movement for social equality.
On the other hand, the
Democrats, speaking for another faction of the ruling elite, are determined to
avoid anything that would mobilize popular anger against Trump. They are
systematically keeping out of their impeachment inquiry any reference to
Trump’s brutal crackdown on immigrants and refugees, unending war and the
social catastrophe confronting workers and youth. Instead, they have focused
their impeachment campaign on issues of foreign policy.
It is within this
framework that the Democratic Party’s elevation of figures such as Bernie
Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez must be understood. In order to provide a
left cover for their right-wing policies, these self-proclaimed “socialists”
have been brought forward to direct growing social anger back behind the
Democratic Party.
In this latest
campaign rally in Detroit on Sunday, Sanders once again directed his remarks
against social inequality, listing many of the social ills confronting workers
and youth. Most significant, however, was what was not said.
Sanders made no
reference to the more than month-long strike by General Motors workers, which
was just shut down by the United Auto Workers on the basis of a contract that
facilitates the massive expansion of temporary workers, which has become the
“new normal” for young people. Sanders also made no reference to the ongoing
Chicago teachers strike.
The omissions were not
accidental. The Democratic Party, through figures like Sanders and
Ocasio-Cortez, propose a “socialism” (though they almost never use the word)
that does not involve the class struggle. Ending the domination of the
“billionaire class” is supposedly to be achieved without any mass social
movement or any challenge to the economic domination of the capitalist class.
And it is supposedly
to be done within the framework of the Democratic Party, which is no less
responsible than the Republicans for the social conditions confronting workers
and young people.
The critical question
is to build a socialist leadership in the working class and youth, to explain
what genuine socialism is and how it must be fought for. The fight for
socialism means the fight to establish democratic control of the giant banks
and corporations by the working class. It means an end to social inequality
through a radical redistribution of wealth and the expropriation of the
ill-gotten gains of the corporate and financial aristocracy. It means an end to
war and abolition of the military-intelligence apparatus.
The foundation for a
socialist movement is the working class, in the United States and
internationally. The reorganization of economic life on a world scale, on the
basis of social need, not private profit, requires the independent mobilization
of the working class to take power and establish a workers’ government.
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