Dear Friends,
It seems to me that one of the best things about living in a capitalist society is that the market system creates new luxury and at the same time turns old luxury into necessity. That was one of the complaints the original anti capitalists had about the market system. The original conservatives wanted to return to the feudal system, for a number of reasons, this being one. But to me the fact that I live in a society that is constantly creating new luxury and turning old luxury into necessity is awesome!
I feel sorry for those that live under socialist systems however. The reality of socialism is that it takes necessity and turns it into luxury. What the perpetual state of want, that the socialist system creates in any society that takes up the burden of it does, is lower people’s expectations. It comes to power with all sorts of promises of a greater material standard of living for the masses but delivers lower and lower. Largely due to the built in pernicious incentives that socialism has within it.
When you reside in a capitalist system there is a general positive feeling. People naturally have a skip in their step because they know in their hearts that the sky is the limit. The only real impediment is their own ambition or lack of it. Those with real ambition and drive get rich and those that want the nine to five get a good living. Think of it this way… If you know that whatever you want to do, there is a very good possibility that you will succeed, then your whole outlook on life is gleeful.
There is no glee for those poor people who have to live with the burden of socialism. They have the certain knowledge that, no matter how hard they try, the system is built to grind them down. Down and down to the lowest common denominator. The dreary and mechanical existence as a slave to the State is not the least enlightening or enjoyable. Those poor souls, who must toil under the State slavery that is socialism, have no possible means of improving their own lot… Let alone someone else’s.
I am positive everyone who reads this blog will have seen movies of the roaring twenties. Prohibition, Tommy guns, Speakeasies, rum running and all the dancing. Every film of that time shows people dancing and living it up. Times were great and the whole of the planet was enriched. Capitalism abounded and people were happy. In fact, that is kind of the theme of the roaring twenties, if you think about it, isn’t it? Happy go lucky. Make a million by noon and loose it in a card game that night. Easy come easy go… under the capitalistic times of the roaring twenties.
Under the socialistic times of the 1930’s it was far different however. Soup lines, the depression, WPA, rationing, price controls, drastic monetary interventions, and every where… poverty. The more the government intervened the worse it got. People wandered the countryside looking for work. Any work at all would do. Folks were destitute. The only thing people had to hold on to was FDR. He was the cult of personality that held it together. The unbiased media were right in there with him. Together they chained the animal spirits of capitalism in the basement.
The 1980’s – 1990’s were an exultant time where capitalism ruled. The kids of the dot com generation’s future was so bright they had to wear shades. Every kid started a business and became wealthy or learned life lessons by it. The entrepreneurial ethos was at it’s apex. How many dot com millionaires have you heard about? Capitalism at that time was heralded as great and luxury quickly became necessity. In 1980 almost no one had a personal computer but by 2000 they were endemic around the World. An entire industry was born and has matured in that time..
Today our governments have made a decidedly anti capitalist turn. When the democrats won the 2008 election in a landslide they called an end to capitalism. They announced that radical change was underway. Apparently they meant it. Unemployment is at a decades high, but worse, workforce participation in the US is at an all time low (since the introduction of women to the workforce in the 1970‘s). People’s expectations have been lowered due to the “new normal…” socialism’s first effects. Later, if there is not a drastic change in direction, we will see far more negative effects than merely lowering necessity to luxury.
There is one thing that need never change however, times may change and governments may change, but your attitude need not. If we have the attitude that we live under a capitalist system, and the sky is the limit, we will unconsciously put that paradigm into effect. Not only in ourselves but in the World at large. Our attitude stands outside the World yet effects it. It is incorporate within us and we control it. Sometimes like a rider a horse but we control it and it has power. Jesus said, “as a man thinks so is that man.” Think good thoughts and do good works, like putting together new luxuries for your fellow man, turning old luxury into new necessity… and becoming wealthy in the process.
Yup, that’s right, follow Jesus to riches, both worldly and other worldly…
Or so the miracle workers would have us believe…
Sincerely,
John
