Capitalism is not the problem.  Lack of clarity is.
10/4/2016

 

 

To blame capitalism for the woes of the world is to blame something that is misunderstood.  Capitalism can be likened to water.  Pure capitalism is absolute voluntary exchange.  Specifically it is about voluntary exchange with an emphasis on monetary or currency based exchanges.  This means that one or both parties are exchanging money or currency for profit, for gains; that they believe what they are giving up is less valuable than what they are receiving.

 

Purely voluntary exchange is simply bartering.  Bartering has no emphasis on the kind of exchange other than getting goods, services, and ideas (real wealth*) into the hands of consumers.  While this is the same as capitalism minus the emphasis on money or currency as part of the exchange, both are founded on voluntary interactions.  Both are founded on coercion free exchanges.

 

So when an element of involuntary or compulsion or coercion is introduced, it is akin to putting dirt into the water.  Sure we can still drink the water and not get sick, but it is preferable to not.  Thus the more compulsion or coercion introduced into the water the less likely it is to be desirable since it makes us sick.  And what is the first bit of dirt added into capitalism or bartering?

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Taxation.

 

Well almost.  Taxation creates an artificial demand for whatever is desired to satisfy the compulsory payment.  If gold is demanded then the value of gold rises since it keeps the tax collectors and law enforcers from demanding additional fees for noncompliance, later kidnapping attempts called arrests to be jailed.  That’s powerful motivation to acquire whatever is desired for tax satisfaction.

 

But taxation isn’t quite putting dirt in the water making us have to filter it at all.  Taxation is more akin to taking a portion of our collected water for the taxman to redistribute to the law enforcers, law makers, law interpreters to regulate us.  And it is the regulations which add dirt to our water.  And the kicker is that we can’t satisfy tax debts with sullied water or air.

 

No.  We have to acquire and filter the water and air before giving it to them after all the regulations imposed upon us.

 

Let’s think about that for a moment.  All the people alive upon North America more than 200 years ago in what will become the United States had it easy.  They didn’t have to really filter their water too much.  And they didn’t have to trade exclusively with it either.  It was easy to comply with taxation since the taxes were low and generally applicable to imports and major land property owners.  But today taxes and regulations affect pretty much everything.

 

We have to filter water only to have it taken from us so that it can be redistributed back to us in drops from barrels.  Regulations make earning money to pay taxes difficult.  It is still possible to make things work, but the rules imposed are numerous.  This is why capitalism is blamed.  Poisoned, dirtied water (cheap money not worth much but required in such tremendous quantities to get anything) is not the fault of capitalism.  It’s the group first manipulating it.

 

While it’s still capitalism, it’s just hindered greatly.  Many will refer to it as crony capitalism.  But it is capitalism with a tremendous control mechanism attached to it in the form of taxation to coerce people to use a specific kind of money or currency or kind of wealth to satisfy demands to avoid being arrested or jailed.  Another way to look at this is like a dimmer switch for a light.  Turn it on and to its fullest bright setting to simulate pure voluntary exchange, be it monetary or currency focus like capitalism or bartering.  Start dimming the light to simulate taxes and increased regulations.

 

That is there is to it concerning what the problem is with capitalism and why things cost money or currency, why living seems to be expensive.  Get taxation out of the way and people will not be forced to whatever is necessary to satisfy tax debts imposed upon them or others.  If you would like to know more about the fundamentals of wealth, liberty, and how they connect to morality and the Nonaggression Principle please download free copies of my eBooks, Liberty Defined and Morality Defined.

 

-JLD
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*Learn more about how I break down wealth in my free eBook, Liberty Defined.