Capitalism is about opportunity, innovation and ingenuity. So, why is capitalism becoming such a dirty word in today’s generation?
People see all the bad things going on in the world: inequality and suffering among the general population, while a certain elite group gets bailed out every time they make a mistake. We are right to be angry at these things and we are also right to demand change. The problem is when we blame the wrong culprit, in this case capitalism, any actions taken to ameliorate our circumstances are ineffective and pointless.
We blame capitalism because we don’t fully understand it. We listen to the ever biased media and hear the opinions of people that we care about even when they are not experts on the topic. If we actually took the time to listen to experts on the subject, such as world renowned economists, you will hear a different story – a story about how we are much better off as a society and an economy when we welcome the freedom and opportunity capitalism has to offer.
So if capitalism isn’t the true culprit, then who is? The answer is cronyism. Cronyism is a corrupt system, often mistaken for capitalism, where politicians give a certain elite group advantages in the market in exchange for economic contributions and favors.
Another part of the problem is our go-to solution for everything – proposing more government. Not only are they the ones keeping the money and power distributed within their elite inner circle, but they never take responsibility when things go wrong. Instead, they redirect the negative attention to the world’s biggest scapegoat – capitalism.
We need change, but the kind of change we need is one of true capitalism. We need the kind of change that drives innovators to create new ways of doing things. The kind of change that incentivizes hard work and creativity to solve our greatest challenges. The kind of change that brings people together and allows them to freely serve one another.
We need capitalism so that the man, woman, entrepreneur, or kid who will grow up to create the next company that changes the world has the freedom to do so.
We all know being successful isn’t a bad thing, so let’s ditch cronyism and stop waiting for the government to do something about. Because when a politician gets involved, we’ve already lost the battle.
The change we want to see will not come from government. It will come from US.
