My friend Wally Conger had a blog with the subtitle “Unfinished essays and spontaneous eruptions on radical politics and popular culture.” I guess that’s what this is; the thoughts are still fermenting.
I’m struck by the growing perception of capitalism as a bad thing, and by “capitalism” I mean a system based on free market, open competition, profit motive and private ownership.
It means people doing their best, hard work in order to accomplish some thing, being it food on the table or a roof overhead or a useful tool or information for the community or the next generation.
How do you (and “we”) move forward without being rewarded for good, hard work? What is the incentive to produce when the more you produce, the more you are taxed and regulated? Human nature never stops being human nature: When the cost of a product or service is too high, the product or service will not be exchanged.
Profit is the discretionary funds left when costs are subtracted from revenue. Profit is the trip to the movies, the dessert, the ball game, the electronic toy. Reduce profits and you reduce the money spent on items beyond food, clothing and shelter.
And yet “profit” is a word said with a sneer and a spit, and “the rich” are reviled as if becoming rich can happen without hard work and dedicated service to others. It’s a puzzlement.
3 comments:
True capitalism is alive and well and resides in the world's second largest economy, System D.
I suspect this is because we've been told our current fascist system is "Capitalism" and the "rich" and their "profits" are at the expense of others at the recieving end of a repressive system of violence and the imminant threat thereof. Such weighted terms are easily coopted for propaganda by those with no scruples.
That's a good point, PoS. I sometimes make the mistake of using words the way they were originally intended and neglecting the baggage that has been attached. I should have acknowledged that what currently exists in the US of A is neither capitalism nor a free market.
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