Many people have this idea that capitalism is absolutely terrible and should be abolished. Mainly because 1% of the population has 80% of the world's wealth. But few seem to realise that the 1% also created 80% of the wealth in the world. There wouldn’t be all that wealth for them to have if it wasn’t for the companies and corporations they built. And not only that but they are trying to latch onto an attractive idea, not a realistic one, which I outlined in my previous post.
All the people who hate capitalism are the people who feel hard done by. The people who sat on their asses all their life watching a select few become the richest people alive. These kinds of people will say that everyone deserves equal pay and that the wealth of the world is distributed unevenly and unfairly. Is it distributed unevenly? Absolutely. Is it distributed unfairly? Absolutely NOT. No one put a gun to your head and told you to buy the things you buy. People will buy an iPhone that they know is heavily overpriced and then complain about how much Apple Inc. is worth ($800 Billion). Buy buying an iPhone you are adding to that wealth. People seem to forget that a purchase is a transfer of wealth.
And that's essentially what wages are too. If you have a job that pays €10 an hour, you are putting a valuation of €10 on your time. But a business will only hire you if they can make a profit on you. No business is going to hire you if they’re going to lose money by doing so. And so if you put a value of €10 on your time, then they put a valuation of more than €10 on your time. They value your time more than you value your own, that way they make a profit off you. That’s business, it will never be any other way. BUT, no one is putting a gun to your head to work there. If you accept €10 an hour, then that must be the best price you can get for your time, otherwise, you’d go somewhere else that will hire you for a higher valuation.
Then there's an argument that in Asia people are grossly underpaid, and are forced to work in sweatshops and what not. Now, this argument is subject to a false narrative and also a self-centred and uneducated point of view. People will argue that Asian workers are not paid enough to live comfortably. In actual fact they are. You see, those same people fail to realise that those Asian workers are NOT complaining. The people complaining are westerners who think that the entire world operates in the same way their country does. And so if they can’t survive with a wage less than €10 an hour than no one else can, especially not a factory worker in China paid €3 an hour. But most factories in Asia have campuses for the workers, so the workers need not spend money on transport and accommodation so they can live relatively cheap. Not only that but the cost of living would be much lower than most western countries.
Asian countries have the fastest growing economies in the world. If we try to impose that they increase wages, then factories would cut employment drastically and some businesses would even have to exit the market. This would lead to chaos and huge unemployment, not to mention the effect it would have on the global economy. You see, the west cannot deny these countries the ability to go through the phases that our counties have already gone through. Capitalism works. I don’t know how people can’t see this. In the year 1820, the wealthiest man in the world was Cornelius Vanderbilt. His net worth would have been the equivalent of $300 Billion today. His net worth was three times greater than the wealthiest man in the world today (Jeff Bezos). He had $300 Billion at his disposal, yet he had no flushing toilet, no running water and no electricity. Today you can have all three of those things AND still be considered poor. Capitalism provides an incredible standard of living.
Now let's take a look at socialism. Can you give me one example of socialism actually working in the last 200 years, or better yet, ever? You probably can’t. And there's a good reason for that…it doesn’t work. People will tweet about Capitalism killing culture and destroying lives, from a brand new iPhone, which they paid almost triple the cost price for. Then there's a narrative that capitalism doesn’t allow any sense of individualism. It’s actually quite the opposite. I keep saying this but, no one is putting a gun to your head telling you how to dress and how to live. You have a choice. You always have a choice, there actually no way of not having a choice. Even if you decide not to choose, you are making a choice not to choose. You can dress whatever way you like as long as you have the means to get the clothes. You could even make your own clothes if you really dislike wearing the same thing as everyone else. The biggest clothing brands became that big because people liked what they were selling, simple as. Capitalism provides a huge scope for individualism.
People keep chasing attractive ideas and rejecting realistic ideas. No one seems to want to accept the truth. And this can be seen everywhere. People will do anything to lose weight, EXCEPT eat well and exercise. People will always look for a ‘get rich quick scheme’, which they will never find, as opposed to putting real work and effort into building a business. People will call themselves realists but chase fantasy.
What a world we live in!
Cormac