Understanding Capitalism
The term "capitalism" is often used, misused, and abused, leading to a lack of a stable definition. This makes it difficult to engage in meaningful debates about the concept and its implications. However, it is important to discuss the ways in which the economic systems of the industrialized world have veered away from the principles of voluntarism in the commercial sector.
Defining Capitalism
While it is challenging to define capitalism precisely, it can be broadly described as a system of voluntary and contractual exchange of privately owned property titles that allows for capital accumulation. It does not support top-down planning, instead favoring social processes over state planning. Ideally, it is the economic system of a society of consent.
Reality vs. Ideal
However, the reality of our economic systems often falls short of this ideal. The status quo in many instances fails to meet the criteria of a capitalistic marketplace. Here are some of the ways in which the US system deviates from the ideal type of capitalism:
1. Tech and Media Platforms
Governments have become significant customers of tech and media platforms, leading to surveillance, propaganda, and censorship. Despite this, these companies still maintain their reputation as capitalist entities, even as they become increasingly intertwined with state power.
2. Medical Cartel
The US has a medical cartel that cooperates with regulatory agencies and official institutions to impose high prices and promote addiction and ill health. The interventions in this sector are numerous and have made independent medical practice nearly impossible.
3. Educational System
The US educational system is mostly government-funded, blocks competition, and pushes a political agenda of compliance and indoctrination. State intervention in educational services is extensive, eliminating the influence of normal capitalistic forces.
4. Agricultural Subsidies
Agricultural subsidies have created vast industries that crush smaller farming and push unhealthy food onto the public. The system has become heavily cartelized, with small farms being driven out of business due to compliance costs and investigations.
5. Taxation System
The US taxation system is complex and confiscatory, punishing wealth accumulation and hindering social mobility. It is deployed as a method of planning and control, forcing industries to comply with taxing masters.
6. Fiat Paper Money
Fiat paper money and floating exchange rates provide the government with unlimited funds, create inflation, and prevent currencies from rising in value. This system has disrupted the normal functioning of international trade and expanded government power.
7. Court System
The court system invites extortionist litigation that can only be fought with deep pockets. This has become a means by which certain hiring standards have become normalized, out of fear of bankruptcy due to litigation.
8. Patent System
The patent system grants private industry production cartels and stops competition for everything from pharmaceuticals to software to industrial processes. This is a form of industrial cartelization, unjustified by any standard of commercial freedom.
9. Property Rights
Property rights are weaker than ever and can be overridden or even abolished with the stroke of a pen. This has serious consequences for business owners who cannot be certain of their rights to their own enterprise.
10. Federal Budget and Agencies
The bloated federal budget supports over 420 agencies that lord over commercial society, increasing compliance costs for entrepreneurs and creating uncertainty about the rules of the game.
Bottom Line
The next time someone criticizes the US system as a prime example of the failures of capitalism, consider these factors. The current system is far from a perfect representation of capitalism. Instead, it is a system where state power imposes on commercial freedom, often with the willing cooperation of dominant players in every industry. This system doesn't have a precise name in the 21st century, but it is a form of surveillance-based and digitized despotism that rewards private enterprises that align with state power and punishes those that do not.
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