Corporate North America

Here it is, the long awaited rant...

The truth is that I am hesitant to share my views because they are popular with neither the left- nor the right-wingers, and while I have no problem ticking off the left-wingers, I consider myself to be rather conservative. But here goes...

Capitalism and democracy work because they are the only systems that take into account human nature. Other systems, such as dictatorship and communism, depend very heavily on goodwill and good intentions of both the leaders, and the general public.

I am not naturally an altruistic person. My natural inclination is NOT to put the needs of others ahead of myself. Capitalism says, "that's fine, but here's an incentive to do so." For example, if a baker makes bread to sell, his motivation is to make some more money than it cost him to make the bread. If his bread sucks, people will stop buying it, and then he can't make money. Likewise, if he puts sawdust in the bread, people will find out, and they will stop buying it. So, rather than having a special bread-checker come around each morning, the baker is kept in check by his own greed. And that's how capitalism works... each seller of a good or service produces a quality good because that's the best way to make money.

Any other system won't work because it assumes that people NATURALLY look out for the good of others. And if we, as generally good people, know that is not the natural way for US, how can we trust everyone else to naturally look out for our interests?

Since my blogs sometimes get too long, I will continue this at a later time... But that is my defense of capitalism. [And, on a side note, the reason democracy works, to quote Jon Foreman of Switchfoot... "You see, I believe in democracy because I mistrust all humanity equally, (including myself). Power corrupts us all and we become political, (in the worst connotation of the word). We become simply pawns of our own insatiable hunger for control. Maybe control is a myth, like Santa Claus or the easter bunny: a nice fable that makes the children want to be good all year round. Well, seems to me there's a monster in all of us. I pledge allegiance to a nation without borders, without pride, without politicians like ourselves" - from http://www.switchfoot.com/musicmain.htm]

Stay tuned for the problems of capitalism.