Free markets and capitalism Part 1
For me, the NBA season ends when the Mavericks bow out of the playoffs. I’ll devote some time to the Mavs around the draft, but for now, I’d like to get back to some political discussions, specifically something that I have been thinking about a lot the past few weeks.
I find it funny when people attack capitalism and free markets, treating them as the “enemy” of freedom and liberty. Barack Obama has made this way of thinking chic again, when the opposite is actually true—capitalism and the free markets are the guarantors of freedom and liberty. Sure, as a young, idealistic college student, it’s fun to think like Mr. Obama, but once you graduate certain realities should start to take shape.
It’s the free market economic system that allows you the very freedom to sit around and even consider whether or not some third world factory worker is exploited or not. Likewise, it’s the free market system that created and maintains the “middle class” Lefitsts talk so much about (but do so little for). If it weren’t for our free market economic system, you would be farming your own food, raising your own animals, sewing your own clothes and would have very little leisure time to sit around and think.
It’s our free market economic system, which some think exploits our citizens and other countries, that has paved the way for the ambition and innovation that has allowed for the technological innovations that allow you to write blogs, join social networking sites, write and send e-mails.
It’s our free market economic system, which some think exploits our citizens and other countries, that transformed our nation (and world to a certain extent) from a collection of isolated communities into a vast global network, where we are aware of the condition of those outside our own communities. Do you think Cubans are very aware of those outside of Cuba? Does the average Cuban have the luxury of sitting around, thinking about the condition of people in Darfur?
It’s our free market economic system, which some think exploits other countries, that, believe it or not, raises the per capita earnings of residents in Third World countries. Sure, a person working in a sweat shop in Vietnam makes a terrible wage compared to Americans, but compared to other people in Vietnam, they make a better than average wage.
