Capitalism - Should Governments Be Blamed?
Welcome! I may not sleep soon for the night is young. Scientists tell me I need to sleep more, but I ask myself how I can sleep more in this economy? Even when I do sleep more, the rich accuse me of sleeping while they work their ass off to get where they are. If the rich are not accusing me of being lazy, some politician is trying to get me to play the victim for his vote. Regardless of which forces point at me, I look within like a Chinese monk for the solutions. My body says sleep, my mind says the night is young. My brain cherishes the silence of the night, and tells my fingers to write and my eyes to read. I have to write for the night is young. It is in this silence that my thoughts become coherent. Here we go!
The average politician earns more than the average person. In my last post, I pointed to the inequality in the world as a result of humans being greedy and fearful. What motivates most politicians isn't the love for humanity as they would have us believe, but the sheer amount of benefits that come with holding such positions of power. Typical pig behavior as outlined by George Orwell in his book "Animal Farm". It's greed. The first sentences in the first paragraph picture the average person's struggles in today's world. If there is anyone to hold responsible for society's struggles, it would be the person who seeks and has your votes.
Capitalism is an economic system in which private individuals or businesses own the means of production, such as factories, land, and capital, and operate them for a profit. Capitalism only begins to exhibit differences when the government becomes involved. In theory, it should be a free market where all the pillars of economics operate based on the principles of supply and demand. However, rationality and reality show this is not possible, which is why we have Welfare Capitalism in the Scandinavian countries and, State Capitalism in places like China. Some countries come close to the free-market model, like the USA and Singapore. This is necessary to understand why capitalism itself is not to blame for our struggles, but the government's overreach. Of course, referencing my previous post, I advocated for the government to cater to the basic needs of the public. In an even more important role, the government should enable the existence of a free market and not participate in it.
The average person isn't aware of the boom and bust cycles created by governments and central banks that continuously deplete the value of our savings and earnings. By the government massively participating in a market, it will have the power and thus can inefficiently allocate resources, which we all know are scarce. Let's take the 2008 financial crisis, where, together with central banks, governments had created a favorable borrowing market environment, leading to too much allocation of resources into the housing market. When it turned out this area wasn't as profitable, and by the time borrowing costs began to rise, the world was plunged into chaos. Most people saw their savings and overall purchasing power vanish. What I'm saying is, if you can buy five apples for $3 today, in four years, that $3 can only get you 2 apples. Yes! I'm talking about inflation. A money printing monopoly in a "free market" breeds bad actors.
This isn't so obvious to the average person, who somehow will point to a richer person and blame them for their issues. Guess what, after the 2008 financial crisis, many emerged as billionaires and millionaires. It was basically taking from the have-nots, know-nots, and giving to the haves, know-all. An environment created by the same government that is supposed to protect us. A cycle of continuous wealth transfer had been created by our own elected politicians. You sweat your life, save up only to have the value of your savings deplete. You have your sweet 401 (k), Roth IRA, and other stock, bond, and real estate investments, yet you decry the billionaires. It is either frustration or hypocrisy, but I choose the former just so I come off as nice. I'm not blaming you, but merely asking you to open your eyes to the game. Our elected officials, like the pigs in Animal Farm, are to blame for the version of capitalism they have us in.
You can't blame Elon when your 401 (k) invests in the S&P 500 index, which just happens to have Tesla. The same goes for Zuckerberg and Bezos. It will shock me to find out you're shopping on Amazon or being a regular on Facebook and Instagram, etc. Let's not imagine finding out that your 401 (k) and Roth IRA invest in sovereign debt. Sovereign debt has us at a choke point because our elected officials have borrowed so much that resources which could be used to cater for our basic needs are being utilized to service (pay for) the debts. There is really no problem with borrowing, provided the resources are recognized as scarce and thus used productively. No government does a good job at that, yet continues to be a key player in capitalism, where it exercises the greatest power.
Capitalism should be allowed to be capitalism. What we have is a far cry from it. I rest my case.
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