On Capitalism

Let’s talk economics.

I believe that of all the economic models available, capitalism is by far the best. Capitalism is wonderful. The profit incentive that capitalism creates is amazing and has benefited humanity in innumerable ways. Profit incentive and thus capitalism has led to unbelievable moments of human advancement, progress, and evolution for as long as this system has been around. However, the immense evil of unregulated greed can easily break capitalism and thus destroy the potential benefits of capitalism.

Let’s first focus on the immense wonders and grand achievements of capitalism.

Some form of capitalism has been around for a very long time. If this system was inherently bad or destructive or violent it would not have existed over such a long period of time nor would it have been able to create various achievements across hundreds of industries over the past thousands and thousands of years. If capitalism was inherently bad, humanity would have found a better economic system, chosen to evolve away from capitalism, and this economic system would not be so widely practiced today.      

But this simply has not been the case. Some form of capitalism where people are permitted to profit from their labor and/or contributed value exists in EVERY SINGLE sovereign nation around the world. Profit driven markets of all types have existed in almost all human civilizations for thousands of years.

Capitalism has also helped humanity improve and evolve in innumerable ways. Capitalism and the profit incentive it creates has helped humanity evolve and improve the human condition more than any other economic theory in the history of human civilization.

I also think many people are confused these days about what socialism and capitalism actually are. It also doesn’t help that these words have become “buzzwords” that people casually throw around and no longer have objective meanings in discussions within our society. Also, for decades people have struggled to create clear, unified definitions of these terms. The waters and conversations and discussions around the concepts of “capitalism” and “socialism” and their relationship to political systems are painfully murky and muddled. So please just stick with me through these next few paragraphs.

In the context in which I am writing- I am writing as a voter in the US which is in theory a democratic republic created by the US Constitution- socialism and capitalism are also ONLY economic philosophies. When generally discussing socialism and capitalism they are often understood as both potential economic AND potential political philosophies. However, political philosophies and systems shape, dictate, and structure all economic philosophies and systems. That is just how all human societies operate. The political system of a nation and the resulting laws, codes, and regulations shape the economies of a nation. Constitutionally the US is a democratic republic and I believe this is the best type of government and political system available. I wrote a whole book on this topic called Voter Directed Democracy. Thus, for me in this essay, socialism and capitalism are only potential economic philosophies that voters can consider. In other words, I do not believe socialism or capitalism to be good, valid, or beneficial political philosophies. I will always politically prefer democracy, democratic republics, and ideally online Voter Directed democratic republics over all other more authoritarian political philosophies. Economically, however, both capitalism and socialism are needed and have existed simultaneously in the US since the founding of our country. 

Since a democratic republic is our constitutionally established political system in the US, our collective economic systems, laws, and decisions should obviously be democratic and not authoritarian. Therefore, political decisions that result in economic systems of Democratic Capitalism and Democratic Socialism are good AND political decisions that result in economic systems of Authoritarian Capitalism and Authoritarian Socialism are bad. In other words, whatever the political decisions that shape our economies and money systems are- they MUST be democratic and consistent with the openly and transparently determined Will of the People and not authoritarian.  

Now for some definitions…

Generally speaking, capitalism is a system designed to create private profit. Any political/government decision or action that supports the creation of privatized profit from creating and selling goods and services to any extent is capitalist. Capitalism is all about private profit. Political decisions that are supported by the Will of the People and support private profit can be considered Democratic Capitalism, which is good. Political/government decisions and actions that support private profit but are not consistent with the Will of the People can be considered Authoritarian Capitalism, which is bad.     

Next, in the context of the US Constitution and democratic republic, socialism is best understood as taxes. Economic socialism is a tax taking and distribution system. There are essentially three big parts of the tax system: 1. Taxes that the government takes 2. Taxes that the government does not take and 3. what the government does with the tax revenue. Thus any political/government decision or action that is supported by the Will of the People and is related to what to tax, what not to tax, and what that tax revenue should be used for is Democratic Socialism, which is good. And any political/government decision or action that is not supported by the Will of the People and is related to what to tax, what not to tax, and what that tax revenue should be used for is Authoritarian Socialism, which is bad.

The US should have a democratic capitalist economic system and a democratic socialist tax system. In other words, the US government/the US political system should collect taxes and distribute tax revenue from the democratic capitalist economic system via the democratic socialist tax system. The tax revenue and other sources of government revenue should be collected and allocated towards various government systems and programs according to an openly, honestly, and transparently determined Will of the People. This is, in theory, how a capitalist and socialist economic system should operate together in a democratic republic. There should be a free, fair, and profit-incentive-driven capitalist economic system that is democratically regulated and taxed by an honest and transparent democratic republic political system. Thus, I believe, like in our current economic system there can be private equity and public equity; for-profit goods and services and non-profit goods and services; a capitalist and socialist economic system. Also, in the US and any other democratic society, ALL functions and actions of the economy must be regulated by the democratic republic in accordance with an objectively determined Will of the People. In other words, I believe in Democratic Capitalism and Democratic Socialism, which both exist today in our current economic system. Our current economy, however, is also oppressed by the evils of unregulated greed and has devolved into Authoritarian Capitalism and Authoritarian Socialism.

To be as clear and concise as possible, we need Democratic Capitalism and Democratic Socialism. This is because Democratic Capitalism has been proven over thousands of years to create an economic system that tells all citizens that they can create wealth and power for themselves when they bring society ANYTHING of value. When any individual or company creates ANY TYPE of value via goods, services, or labor, capitalism rewards them with some level of wealth and power. In a democratic capitalist system, humans are thus incentivized to bring value to their society because they can profit from it. Profit incentive is the backbone of successful capitalism.

However, the huge problem with capitalism is that without proper democratic government regulation, Authoritarian Capitalism and Authoritarian Socialism takes over and the immense benefits a democratic capitalist economic system can bring to any society can easily be destroyed by authoritarian greed.   

Unregulated greed whispers one simple phrase to capitalists and the immense benefits of capitalist profit incentive start to immediately deteriorate.

Unregulated greed whispers, “make as much money as possible” and one or both of these two things start to happen… The product or service becomes worse and/or other humans begin to suffer.

Capitalist profit incentive creates this immense potential for human evolution, advancement, and improving the human condition in so many ways. But unregulated greed leads to the products and services becoming worse and/or leads to other humans suffering.

There are unfortunately an overwhelming number of examples of this dynamic human in history and playing out in modern times. For example…

Our capitalist profit incentive creates the potential for innovative food systems to provide healthy and nutritious food to the whole nation… but unregulated greed whispers, “make as much money as possible” and our food systems are then filled with chemicals and addictive substances that destroy our health and are designed to increase the shelf life of food and maximize corporate profits.

 Our capitalist profit incentive creates the potential for technology and car companies to provide amazing and innovative gadgets and vehicles to the country… but unregulated corporate greed whispers, “make as much money as possible” and the products are intentionally made to break down after just a few years, which maximizes corporate profits at the expense of the consumer.

Our capitalist profit incentive creates the potential for healthcare companies and pharmaceutical companies to help heal and care for the country… but unregulated corporate greed whispers, “make as much money as possible” and health insurance plans, healthcare costs, and medicine becomes insanely expensive, doesn’t prioritize healing, and is financially inaccessible to millions, while these companies maximize profits.  

Our capitalist profit incentive creates the potential for defense companies to create innovate and incredible solutions for defending our country from invasion… but unregulated corporate greed whispers, “make as much money as possible” and military industrial complex takes over and demands perpetual war and perpetually more government funding, while millions suffer in the resulting poverty and violence.

Our capitalist profit incentive creates the potential for lending institutions and higher education institutions to help young adults become professionally educated and trained to contribute to our ever-advancing societies… but unregulated corporate greed whispers, “make as much money as possible” and students are then forced to take on immense, crippling student loans, while maximizing profits for lenders, colleges, and universities.

The clear solution to all of these failures of unregulated greed is government regulation. Democratic governments must exercise their right to regulate our economies away from evil, harmful, and destructive greed at all levels in order to protect everyone from various disastrous societal consequences.

But currently the political and economic systems work the other way around. Our supposedly democratic governments are immensely flawed and financially corrupt and are not regulating our capitalist economy. Our Authoritarian Capitalist economy is regulating and corrupting our constitutional democratic republics. Increasingly authoritarian and anti-democracy party driven corporatist oligarchy is defeating our democratic republic.

The Will of the People is going unfulfilled in relation to almost all of our collectively identified economic preferences. For decades, the Will of Unregulated Greed has been implemented by corrupt party-driven political systems and the true economic Will of the People has been ignored.  

In many ways, we have become the United States of Corporate America. We have an immensely flawed and corrupt democracy and broken political system. Our political parties are funded by Authoritarian Oligarchy, Authoritarian Capitalism, and Authoritarian Socialism and constantly submit to the unregulated greed of corporate America in nearly every industry.

If we want capitalism to thrive and do great things for many humans as it always has the potential to do, we must improve our democratic republics. We must modernize and evolve our democratic republics and choose the political evolution of online Voter Directed democratic republics on Voter Directed Network.

We must begin implementing the real Will of the People and begin to regulate our potentially amazing Democratic Capitalist economies against the immensely evil, violent, destructive, and corrupting forces of unregulated greed.

I believe capitalism is the best economic system ever created. We just have to make sure that the benefits of capitalist profit incentive remain while the products and services do not worsen over time and other humans do not suffer because of the evils inherent to unregulated, authoritarian greed. We must evolve our struggling and increasingly authoritarian capitalist economies into voter directed democratic capitalist economies.

Thank you for reading,

AVK