It is argued that Capitalism is the single most effective engine for change we’ve ever invented but it’s also been instrumental in creating the very challenges
2. It is argued that Capitalism is the single most effective engine for
change we’ve ever invented but it’s also been instrumentalin
creating the very challenges that threaten our continued
survival: climate change, the impending energy crisis, even over-
population.
Does capitalism’s focus need to be changed – from short-term
stockprices, valuing profits over people, and costs deferred to
future generations – to some more alluring system if this system
exists.
3. personally believe that anything we will do to reign on
Capitalism will stifle the wonders that it produces.
I also believe that the so-called “problems of capitalism” are not
from capitalism itself, but from attemptsto “improve” on the
free market in an attemptto better some particular interest
group by redistribution from some other lesser interest group, at
the point of a gun.
Capitalism is simplicity itself, and any complication makes it
worse.
4. The philosophy is very simple: individuals trade with one
another only when it is mutually beneficial, and their interaction
does not harm the person or property of any third party.
Of course, we must understand that economic systemsare the
slaves of political systems.
If we want to solve the catastrophic problems flowing from what
passes for capitalism in the early 21st century, we must first
correctthe flaws in the political system that nurtures it.
In the United States, where political parties sell legislation to
vested interests
5. and maintain ‘party whips’ to ensure that party-controlled
representativesenact the legislation they’ve sold, gigantic
corporations control the economic system and manipulate it to
their own advantage.
I believe that is the root cause of the failure of capitalism. As
long as political parties control the legislative and executive
branches of our government, and through them the judicial
branch, it will not be possible to change our pseudo-capitalistic
system.
Until we reinvent our political system we cannot take the simple
and obvious step of laying a progressive tax on the gross receipts
of corporations.
6. At present, humans are subject to a progressive tax, but
corporations are not, thus allowing their parasitic growth.
When they are subject to a progressive tax on their gross
receipts, it will break up companies that are ‘Too Big To Fail’, it
will revitalize our economy by ensuring competition,
it will improve our employment by preventing the suffocation of
the small businesses that have long been known to provide more
employment,
it will allow the surviving companies to maintain their own
direct employment as well as the indirect employment of the
support services that supply them and their employees,
7. it will spread prosperity by preventing the obscene concentration
of wealth that marks our present system, and it will inhibit the
inflation that has such a vicious effect on the poorest people.
Throughout nature there are moderating influences to inhibit
excessive growth; living organisms of all kinds are kept in check by
competitionfor foodstuffs,predators, the force of gravity, the
need for mobility, and a multitude of other controlling factors.
Under capitalism, the only natural constraint on excessive growth
is competition.
The quest for profit is the driving force of capitalism and
competitionis the leavening force that prevents the excesses
inherent in the system.
8. Competition is a necessary ingredient that ensures quality
products and fair pricing. When the political system lets corporate
giants absorb or suppress their competitors, they eliminate the
only protection available to the people in a capitalist system.
Bottom Line: I believe Capitalism doesn’t have to be reinvented,
merely properly regulated. Free Markets are real good, but they’re
not perfect. We must though carefully guard against their
excesses.
Thank you,
Share your Thoughts Ziad K Abdelnour is President & CEO of
Blackhawk Partners, Founder & President of the Financial Policy
Council