Random thoughts about capitalism

Today is International Capitalism Day, celebrated in over 190 cities world-wide. Why capitalism? Answer here but I have a few thoughts of my own.

Capitalism is not some blind belief in some distant money-making machine. Actually, it doesn't have that much to do about money! It is a system which has proven better for more people than any other system man-kind has invented, but it's not prefect. It will not make sure that everyone is happy. Some people feel bad, others cannot afford to pay their bills. There are still people living on the street where the ideals of capitalism are respected, and depression, sicknesses and general misery do exist in great abundance even when all material needs have been met. So shouldn't we try to find another system to replace capitalism with, instead of celebrating capitalism?

Yes and no. All the problems I just mentioned exist, whether we have capitalism or socialism. However, where there is capitalism, we have the least of the problems man-kind has had to deal with from the beginning of time, and in such a way that there is no comparison! Capitalism provides most people with good, long lives, and gives them the opportunities to help those extremely few ones who get, in some way, "left behind" in society. In a capitalistic society, those who need help are the exceptions. In other societies, they are the general rule.

But it is not enough to simply apply capitalistic approaches on selected parts of society and expect it to give a reasonable outcome. For that we have many examples. Swedish people took up capitalism and received great wealth and a high standard of living as a result. However, during the last few decades, they have neglected capitalistic ideals and fallen behind as a consequence. Just now they are realizing the power of individual enterprise and have started to back off a little with the government intrusion on freedom. Sweden is a good lesson to keep in mind for those who imagine that selective capitalism could work. It doesn't. This was predicted almost a century ago and has come true. A full-on embrace of capitalism is what societies need to enjoy good lives of their citizens.

The world's inequality is due to capitalism. Not to capitalism making certain groups poor, but to its making its practitioners wealthy. The uneven distribution of wealth in the world is due to the uneven distribution of capitalism. (#)

This is the lesson we should have learned a long time ago, and should therefore celebrate capitalism in its broadest scale. Lives will improve as a result.