Origins Of Wealth

What is it that lifts people out of poverty? What creates wealth? To a disturbingly large part of the populations that make up the capitalist world empire the answer to that question is "the free markets" or "capitalism". Which is strange to say the least...

Free markets and free enterprise are at the basis of the most successful socioeconomic system in human history. I found this old 2011 Forbes article that beautifully describes what so many people believe to be true about capitalism:

Capitalism is the greatest socioeconomic system in human history, because it's so moral and so productive - the two features so essential to human survival and flourishing. It's moral because it enshrines and fosters rationality and self-interest - "enlightened greed," if you will - the two key virtues we all must consciously adopt and practice if we're to pursue and attain life and love, health and wealth, adventure and inspiration. It produces not only material-economic abundance but the aesthetic values seen in the arts and entertainment.
_{source: Forbes}

Isn't that beautiful? These words are printed right next to one of Ayn Rand's better pictures, and the article goes on to explain how "Capitalism Isn't Corporatism or Cronyism," which also serves as the title of the article. It concludes, using the same old and tired rhetoric as usual, that capitalism's limited failures can be contributed to regulation of the markets by the government. It's the old "big government" spook that's holding back progress and innovation by hampering or influencing market forces; deregulation and smaller government are the go-to solution for the political right, and they accuse the political left for adding regulations and bloating the government. The article blames the 2007/2008 collapse wholly on the "coercion part of the mixed economy," on the government regulations and institutions that made possible the sub-prime loan debacle, underwater mortgages and so on:

They were caused by the coercive element, not the free one (or from "deregulation") – and that's where all remedies must lie. We need more freedoms and less controls. We must identify, locate, and excise all those many government agencies, subsidies, taxes, and regulations that violate our liberties and rights, those that transform officials from mere referees on life's field into savages running amuck, altering rules and redistributing well-earned points – and thereby wrecking an otherwise perfectly fine and fun game.
_{source: Forbes}

Ugh... a "perfectly fine and fun game"... sure. And the article began so beautiful. Wrong, but beautiful. So, if capitalism, free markets and free enterprise aren't responsible for lifting people out of poverty and creating wealth, then what is? The answer is so simple it'll make you laugh maybe: wealth is created, people are liberated from poverty when they come together, organize, and start producing stuff together. That's it. That's the entire secret to human progress and human cultural evolution. Nothing more is necessary. And it's the "organize" part that will forever, and I do mean forever, prevent any socioeconomic model from ever becoming free from the pressures applied by the organization of our efforts. It's how we organize those efforts that determine for a large part how we interact with each other and with the institutions we've erected to aid in, and safeguard said organization.

And within any socioeconomic model or reality there will be the tendency of these institutions placing themselves above the people, the individuals, they're supposed to aid in organizing in such a way that is beneficial to most of them. Those who protect the positions of these institutions, those who don't want to change this status quo, are called "conservatives." Capitalism has its own breed of conservatives, once labeled "neocons", who regulate and deregulate at the whim of their industrial masters, as these industries are the institutions they work for. The question is not big government vs small government. Feudalism and slavery produced wealth and lifted certain people out of poverty, but the principle of wealth-creation was always the same: people coming together to produce stuff. They just organized it differently, sort of.

What made wealth grow so quickly these past decades? Two things that have nothing to do with capitalism: 1) scientific and technological progress caused by human curiosity, need, ingenuity and cooperation, and 2) our organization has become bigger, global in fact. The division of labor (which is not a capitalist invention) has never before been fine-tuned to this degree. All this is just to say that there are different ways of organizing our combined efforts that are the true origin of all wealth. Previous ways of organizing came and went, capitalism is a slight improvement on mercantilism, which was a slight improvement on feudalism, but please, don't ever think this is the best we can do, that we're done evolving. And don't be blinded by some ill-reasoned fear for "big government", as the size of your government is not the problem, it's their allegiance, and they've been bought and payed for by the most powerful institutions that make up the whole of interacting human institutions and individuals in the capitalist world economy. A government that's truly by the people and for the people can't be big enough. But that's just me. Here's how industry used governments worldwide to make everyone believe they need 3 servings of milk per day; capitalism IS (a precursor to) cronyism ;-)

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