Human labor is the most abundant and important capital America possesses. There are two ways to allocate that resource. One of them is capitalism. Everything else is slavery. Choose wisely.
The miracle of capitalism is that it allows individuals - every last person in a free society - to own capital and invest it for a profit. That's what you're doing when you freely accept employment. You make the most profitable investment of your capital that you can find.
Your employer hires you because they value your labor more than the money they pay you. They believe they can turn a profit on the money they invest to buy your labor. Both you and the employer are free to seek better investments if either is unhappy with their profits.
It sounds simple enough, but too many people lose sight of that simple dynamic. For example, socialist central planners are perpetually surprised that people with lavish welfare benefits might decide investing their labor in a job isn't profitable enough to get them working.
Every system other than free-market capitalism presumes that most people do NOT fully own the capital of their labor. At the extremes of socialism, communism, and fascism, no one except the State truly owns any capital.
Well, if you don't own any capital, and you don't profit from investing your labor in a job, then why would you work? Answer: because you are FORCED to. There is no other answer, no matter how hard socialists pretend otherwise.
Of course loads of gauzy language and political trickery is employed to conceal this unpleasant truth. Socialists always pretend capitalism is somehow slavery and the alternative they offer is freedom, but the reverse is true. State-controlled economies allocate labor with force.
Never confuse the need to perform hard or unpleasant work with "slavery," and never confuse State control of your life with "freedom." Any sense of "liberation" you might feel from "not having to work" is illusory and temporary. That's why welfare dependents tend to be so angry.
The question you should ask when evaluating political efforts to control the economy and destroy capitalism is: "Who decides where I will work?" Capitalism is the one and only system where the answer is: YOU. The answer always changes when the State controls labor.
That doesn't mean capitalism can create a paradise when everyone does whatever they please and everybody gets rich. That fantasyland does not exist, although collectivist con artists are always pretending they have some secret genius plan to create it.
Capitalism and the pursuit of profit are the best way of allocating resources, including labor, because huge numbers of people are involved in finding and exploiting opportunities, not one little band of blinkered central planners and greedy politicians with ulterior motives.
If you are free to invest your labor and others are free to buy it from you, then everyone has the best chance of finding the most profitable and useful opportunities. That doesn't mean everyone WILL, but all have the best chances, and the nation benefits enormously.
Capitalism is inherently collaborative because compulsive force is minimized. Want me to work for you? Make me an offer and I'll consider it. Want me to invest in your company? Convince me. Want me to buy your product? Let's hear your sales pitch.
We have so tragically undervalued the relationship between capitalism and political freedom. They are inseparable. Collaborative economies that place a high value on persuasion naturally support politics that do the same. Compulsive economics support authoritarian politics.
Rest assured that no one who attacks capitalism - your freedom to own and invest property and labor as YOU see fit - is truly interested in your political freedom. In the end, you will be their slave. All that changes is how the masters posture to justify their power.
We should have spent the past 50 years using our increasing technological prowess to improve capitalism, but instead we let greedy politicians and ideological zealots work tirelessly on tearing it apart. The whole world is becoming less free as love for capitalism fades. /end
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