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Capitalism, a Tool for Democracy

Capitalism is a powerful tool, created by and made for humans. The main ingredients are Morals, Mind, and Money. 

If only one ingredient is missing or compromised, we will end up in an unjust world, anarchy, a dictatorship, or a la-la-land sozzled by idiocracy. Only a fair and educated society can enable the well-being of generations to come. To continue to make money in a fair society, we need sound morals and the knowledge to create the right things for the proper causes. 

So, morals and a free mind make up the engine of capitalism and will ultimately also lead to wealth in the form of money. Hence, we convert our efforts, our love, and our passion to money by applying our morals and minds. 

Capitalism might be the only economic and political system we will ever have to create lasting wealth. Capitalism enables societies to advance and prosper while enjoying a high degree of equality and freedom due to the right of every citizen to capital ownership. These characteristics explain why capitalism is also the perfect system to support a democratic society. The core of capitalism is to create value in the form of products and services through labor, sell them, and, as the bible says in [1 Thessalonians 4:11] ... live a quiet life, to mind our own business, and to earn our own living." And such earned money can benefit everyone and advance society.

However, capitalism has enemies. Societal and natural phenomenons threaten it. War, terror, political corruption, corporate shareholder dominance, misguided lobbyism, unemployment, fake news spreading through social media, "social network(s) putting profits over public safety" [Frances Haugen], misinformation, ignorance, laziness, reductionistic thinking, system inflexibility, antiquated, inadequate, and insufficient regulations, people's habits, illiteracy, people's feeling of entitlement, egos, extreme self-interest, extreme greed and pride, increasing world-complexity, limited human intelligence, epidemics, health, wastefulness, natural disasters, the effects of climate change, are all factors weakening the power of capitalism. 

But, if shielded from these incursions, capitalism can be the most effective system that will advance us as a society, create equality and lower our vulnerability to all forms of external threats. Moreover, genuine capitalism enables us to care for each other and our environment. 

But why has capitalism then for example created this global climate crisis that we are facing now? Why are we still releasing so much CO2 into our atmosphere? 

Capitalism has not created this unfolding global disaster—all of these above threats to capitalism have. It is not a gun that kills a person. It is the human firing it. 

In the past, we created regulations, new rules, or different products to limit threats like ignorance that led to the sale of cigarettes that attacked people's health. But today, it seems, society is becoming increasingly unable to control current threats. Is society not yet advanced enough to save capitalism and instead blames capitalism when things go wrong? Unfortunately, it seems humans start losing the ability to control the ship called capitalism, and we are running the risk of maneuvering right into the abyss. 

Then, war, famine, death, and destruction will hit the world again. A crippled society in shock will mourn their fallen fathers and mothers, children and siblings. We will finally shut up. We will become humble again. We will become hard-working and diligent, honest, kind, giving, and patient again, which I believe is the perfect feeding ground for capitalism. Prosperity and wealth can grow when people are humble, kind, diligent, patient, charitable, abstinent, and moderate. 

Today, I don't see any way to stop the ship from crashing. Soon, our social and economic system might end up outside the circle of capitalistic democracy and drift into extremism. 

When we leave the ship of democracy and capitalism, we will run after demagogues and rabble-rousers who will construct a world built on division, deception, and hatred. Do we want this to happen to us, again? Can we all admit that we f*-up and take responsibility. Or do we unconsciously abandon the safe heaven of capitalism through neglect or lack of caring? Is all we want to hear that things will go back to normal and everything will be great again? 

So, where do we start? Thomas Piketty writes that the major threats to capital in the twentieth century were by-products of war and macroeconomic contraction. Today, we must add the severe effects of climate change and our dependency on the limited and dwindling availability of fossil fuels.

Today, we should realize that it is not the environment, the economy, or politics that needs to be fixed. What needs to be fixed is us. We have lost it. Too many of us are trapped in our bad habits, limitations to understanding, emotional imbalance, and cognitive dissonance. To make matters worse, we are prisoners of an out-of-control system driven by big oil, pharma, the food industry, government, media, and the military-industrial complex. 

This is nothing new. Big resets have happened before. A blinded Nazis killing machine destroyed Europe and, after the war, left a perfect feeding ground for new humble beginnings based on capitalism. Today, the Russians might push towards the deadliest war yet in Ukraine. This anti-capitalistic aggression has disrupted today's economic system and might create suffering and bloodshed the world might have never seen before. 

So, it seems capital will have to take a break for a while now. Can we let the course of history set sail and hope for a happy awakening on the other side? How long will it take? One thing is for sure. All will be good since capitalism always stands for change and hope.


Note: Can capitalism lead us to Heaven on earth? I believe so. I believe that capitalism allows us to Care About People, Ideas, Things, Advancements, and Liberty more than any other system. But I also believe that capitalism, if we are not careful, could also lead us to Hell. Here is why. If we mindfully design and live capitalism based on shared positive morals, knowledge, and, of course, money, we can all thrive. 


Source of Picture: https://kwanumzen.org/teaching-blog/2018/12/10/heaven-and-hell

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