THE "EVILS" OF CAPITALISM

Let me start out by stating that I am a died-in-the-wool, unapologetic capitalist.

In its purest form, capitalism is an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly by competition in a free market.

It is a sad thing that in our country capitalism has been corrupted by politicians who have tried to use it to their advantage to get re-elected and business have tried to use it to their advantage to influence politicians to pass laws and/or regulations that favor them.

In a proper capitalistic society, a person (or persons) comes up with an idea that he believes people need or want, finds investors who believe the idea is good, produce the product or service and sell it to as many people as they can...if it will sell at all.

That last part is called "risk," for in a capitalist society a product might not sell at all or it might sell like iPods, it even become an icon like the Slinky.

Productivity is the key in a capitalist society.

When goods and services are produced, they are then sold at a profit. If they are not sold at a profit, the company that makes or provides them goes broke.

What has happened in our country is that capitalism and politics has become very mixed, like eggs in cake batter. The result is a sort of hybrid capitalism that produces the results mentioned above.

What we need is to get government out of capitalism and capitalism out of government.

The first person to come up with a viable way to do that will be the most important person in history.

I watched Charlie Rose (my favorite interviewer to hate) interview George Lucas, a capitalist who hates capitalism, even though he has benefited from it in his every endeavor.

For those who don't know (is there such a one?), Lucas is the one who gave us "Star Wars," and other really stirring movies.

In the interview, he was exercising his capitalism by promoting his newest film, "Red Tails."

I'm quite certain that he hopes the movie makes a profit.

To Rose's credit, he did note at the beginning of the interview that Lucas benefited from capitalism while philosophically being opposed to it, with which Lucas agreed.

Is that hypocrisy?

I don't think so, but you might disagree with me. That's OK. This is America and you have the right to be wrong.

The cry that capitalism is based on greed is a false one, even though there certainly are greedy capitalists, and in abundance, too.

But that is not capitalism's fault. That is the fault of a character flaw that is common to mankind.

There MUST be laws governing capitalism. More correctly there should be ONE law governing capitalism: Don't cause any physical or other harm to others.

How one defines "harm" might be open to discussion, but it does not need to take the form of endless government intrusion.

No business should be too big to fail, and no business should be restricted from succeeding.

We would be much better off as a country if government had kept its big nose out of business...period.

Then the legal system, or natural business forces, could deal with those who abuse the capitalistic system.

(The efficacy of the legal system is a topic for another day.)

Folks like those in OWS have made it clear that they don't understand business, capitalism, profits, payrolls, expenses or anything else about almost anything.

But in-and-of itself, capitalism has provided the most good for the most people of any system ever devised.

More "poor" people have been helped by capitalism than by any other system. More charities have been helped by capitalists than by any other world system. More Americans have been helped by capitalism than by any other system.

The only "evils" of real capitalism are those imagined by Utopians who think a benevolent government of dictators or despots can solve peoples' problems.

Note: For a really good discussion of capitalism click HERE.