I have lots of friends down here in Texas who are conservatives. They hate Obama, they are capitalists, and they hate government in general. But, on the other hand, they like Medicare because they all get it, they want a better education for children, and they hate Rick Perry because he is anti-teacher, and so it goes. One thing they say very often is that Obama and the Democrats are socialists. So, from time to time, I make the following argument.
Tyranno-economics is any system of economics that works against the common good. There seems to be general agreement among Americans who take an interest in economic theory that socialism is an example of tyranno-economics. Proponents of this system claim that its main purpose is to improve the common good. However, its enemies claim that socialism fails to achieve its purpose because it relies too much on government interventions such as central planning. Capitalism is the favored economic system in the United States and much of the rest of the world. Its proponents claim that its main purpose is to make profits for men who invest their capital in enterprises of various sorts. The friends of capitalism say that the interactions between the People and the system will produce the common good as if an “invisible hand” were guiding the process. The enemies of capitalism claim that, on balance, the system works against the common good. They say that the common good is at best a byproduct of the system, and too often the common good suffers so that capitalists may maximize their profits. In both kinds of systems, those that work mainly for the common good, and those that work mainly for the good of individual investors, the governments in which those systems operate are directly and deeply involved in their support.
Of the two economic systems, only capitalism has been tested on a national scale, and it has failed. Let me repeat, capitalism is a failure. If it were a success, then the People would be fully employed, wages would be sufficient for all to enjoy a comfortable standard of living, young children would be well-fed and well-educated, all those who want to go to college would be able to afford it, sweatshops would not exist anywhere in the world, there would be two new cars in every garage, home ownership would be available to all who wanted it, health care would be of high quality and affordable, everyone’s teeth would be white, straight, and free of disease, everyone would have a nice computer with an operating system that was reliable and easy to use—you get the idea. But all of these elements of the common good are not true today even though we live in the most advanced capitalist system in the world. Capitalism has failed, and it has failed badly.
But, hold on, I must modify my statement. I realize that I have made a mistake. Capitalism is actually a huge success. Capitalists are wealthy beyond imagination. They only have two unfulfilled desires: to be comfortably insulated from the People, and to be richer. The failure has been the failure of the “invisible hand.” It has not produced the common good as the People have interacted with the capitalist system. But wait, it can’t be the “invisible hand” because it is mindless, purposeless, relentless, merciless and amoral. So, the blame for America’s poor economic conditions and prospects falls squarely on the shoulders of the People themselves. They are to blame. If they don’t survive or thrive, then that is life. Survival of the fittest, you know. Evolution by Natural Selection is always on the job.
Capitalism, and it’s mechanism of the “invisible hand,” produced and protected slavery, racism, misogyny, voter suppression, discrimination against homosexuals, hatred of unions, waste of national resources, damage to the environment on an immense scale, global warming, and some wars. There is more to list, but, why bother? Nothing will ever change because the People make the wrong choices, they elect the wrong government officials, they buy the wrong products, they are fools and they get what they deserve.
My friends usually respond to all of this by changing the subject, and some who do not know me very well will challenge me by saying that capitalism has never been allowed to operate in its fullest and most powerful form because the government interferes too much. But most say that capitalism has nothing to do with slavery, racism, misogyny voter suppression, discrimination against homosexuals, etc. And so it goes.