“Capitalism, that
economic system based on the private ownership of the means of
production and distribution, as land, factories, mines, railroads
etc., and their operation for profit, under more or less competitive
conditions.”
—My
childhood dictionary
“Capitalism is a
social system based on the recognition of individual rights,
including property rights, in which all property is privately
owned.”
—Ayn
Rand, “Capitalism: the Unknown Ideal”
“Capitalism has
always been a failure for the lower class. It is now beginning to
fail for the middle classes.”
—Howard
Zinn, “A People’s History of the United States”
I didn’t study
economics in school. It was required in college but I didn’t get to
it before I ran out of money in my sophomore year. Some formal
training in this science would have come in handy when I became a
taxpayer activist, since I had to learn a lot on the run.
The first time I recall
hearing the word “capitalism” was when I lived in Mexico as an
exchange student. One of the family cousins was a communist student;
he tried to tell me that the U.S. system is wrong, that Marxism is
right.
I sensed a flaw in his
theories but at age 18 I didn’t know enough to argue; went home with
the resolution to learn more about the subject. Fortunately, I found
Ayn Rand before I found Howard Zinn. I think that one of the
problems in our country today is that many college students over the
years weren’t so lucky.
I’d argue with Rand’s
overly broad definition, but where to start with Zinn’s critique,
which was written long before things really did start to fall apart,
mostly because of the socialism he advocates.
Follow the above
quotes. The first is a fairly standard definition that I found in my
dictionary. Then, the title of Rand’s book tells us that the
dictionary definition hadn’t actually ever been practiced. The
capitalism that Zinn hates isn’t either a narrowly defined
capitalism, or the broad version advocated by Rand, though he’d hate
that even more: so when we talk about capitalism in today’s economic
systems, it’s not what it’s either supposed to be or accused of
being.
My son, who
occasionally quotes Zinn, says he discovered him in the movie “Good
Will Hunting”, not in his college courses, but “A People’s History
of the United States” is assigned to many American high school and
college students, and this could be the reason they don’t seem to
understand the concept of American exceptionalism — which they
certainly didn’t learn about in 700 pages citing every mistake our
country has ever made, without noting its relative goodness.
I knew something about
Zinn’s Marxist philosophy and his battle with John Silber at Boston
University, but hadn’t read the book. After my son mentioned that my
granddaughter was reading his copy, I bought it myself to write
rebuttals in the margins for her. Fortunately, it doesn’t have any
wizards, vampires or zombies, so Maya quickly lost interest.
Nevertheless, I felt
I’d missed a teaching opportunity this summer when the family was
visiting. So here it is: Feel free to use it with your own
descendants.
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The
busy lemonade stand |
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On July 4, my
12-year-old granddaughter had a lemonade stand in front of my house;
lots of boaters walking to the nearby Salem Harbor dock from faraway
parking stopped to buy. In fewer than three hours, she took in
almost $40!
Her dad and I bought
the lemonade mix. She borrowed a pitcher and plastic cups from Chip
next door, and an umbrella for the table and chair that I let her
use and the men set up. I lent her a cash box with change in it.
When the enterprise was more successful than expected, her mother
quickly made more lemonade while Maya kept selling.
The meals tax didn’t
apply because her customers kept walking. No government so far has
asked for income or property taxes. So, all she had to do was pay
the help – her mom – and pay back the capitalists – Chip, her father
and I – who provided the up-front money and infrastructure for the
business. The rest was profit, earned by her entrepreneurship and
hard work.
She gave her twin
brother a few dollars for running errands. She had around $35 left
because none of the adults demanded repayment or dividends on their
investment. If we had, she’d have taken home only $20. She could
have re-invested some of it to grow the business, to hire employees,
if she’d wanted to make a career of lemonade.
And that, children, is
how capitalism works, when it actually works. In the United States –
the real U.S, not Zinn’s hated version – the economic system has
been mixed, with capitalism partly hijacked by Big Business, Big
Government, and Big Labor. This is from whence cometh the phrase
“crony capitalism”, which is far from the ideal original concept.
Anyhow, my grandson
Aidan had no interest in running a business. He earned $5 cash from
me for stomping all the cardboard boxes I’d been collecting for
recycling; pure muscle enterprise, no risk, no overhead, no tax
reporting. He got to keep it all.It’s an exciting time,
once again, to be a political activist in Massachusetts and
nationally, looking forward to a Barry Goldwater revival.
