Why Capitalism is Failing

This post was adapted from something that I had previously written.

The American dream is dead. This country is portrayed as a land where anyone with a dream has hope of becoming successful. Due to a stronger and stronger reliance on a socialist core, we are crushing more dreams than we are supporting.

The battle between Microsoft and Apple is a good example of this country’s socialist tendencies. In recent years, Microsoft has gotten into trouble for bundling free software with their operating systems. Since this happened, Apple has started bundling similar software to their operating systems. Why the double standard? It’s because they feel that Microsoft is too successful. They are not punishing Microsoft’s ethics, they are punishing Microsoft’s success.

It doesn’t help that Americans who will fight to the death to support capitalism do not even understand the concept of capitalism. Most citizens think that the concept means that you will do anything to make as much money as possible. In reality, capitalism is a system where businesses have the right to run themselves.

Here in America, we turn to socialism and call it, “capitalism.” Businesses are heavily regulated. Memorizing the complicated laws that we force on businesses can do far more for success than having ideas that can push humanity forward. As a result, ideas are lost and we are no better off than we were a hundred years ago. Personally, I feel that we have been slipping backward as a result of government control.

Before people start criticizing me because the government doesn’t actually own all American businesses (though they do have control over the Postal Service, Amtrak, NASA, the Schooling System, and many more money pits), I’m well aware of the fact that government ownership is a defining characteristic of socialism. Ownership is primarily a mechanism to ensure that the government can maintain control. Even without ownership, the amount of control that the government wields should be sufficient to classify the country as socialist. In fact, most countries that we identify as socialist have privately owned businesses.

Of course, do we really want the American government to control our businesses? Most government-run organizations are run horribly. If they lose money, the taxpayers are ultimately forced to pay for it. Different government departments and agencies have budgets based off of spending. There are rewards for going over budget and punishments for going under budget. Since most people want more money, going over budget is typical.

When they screw up, we have to add to our insane debt. Since we can’t cover our yearly interest, we have to add even further debt. The government has no incentive for fiscal responsibility. Businesses that have to compete with others have that incentive.

Many people have good but misguided intentions. Socialists believe that their approach is in the general public’s best interests. If a capitalist nation pushes an industry forward, a socialist country can generally take ideas for its own and heavily subsidize it. This allows them to succeed against more innovative businesses that capitalist communities produce. This is a huge boost for socialist nations, and a drawback for capitalism.

One thing that I have in common with socialists: we both want what we think is right for humanity. I believe in progress. With the global economic system heavily favoring socialism, we are willing to show more support for the stagnation that can be associated with socialism. Socialist countries do well, but they are not progressive. I would rather associate myself with the hardships of an overall beneficial system than our current stagnation.

Since I am looking at what I think is right, I am willing to let government get involved when absolutely necessary. I want progress. The patent system could be used for this purpose, but it needs to be overhauled. There are too many people filing patents on logical conclusions entirely for the purpose of waiting for a big company to infringe on these patents. Fear of lawsuits ultimately slows down the willingness for businesses to innovate.

Among the biggest concerns regarding American socialism is our schooling system. There is a reason that schooling is a major part of all socialist communities. They allow the government to define jobs and tell future businessmen how they are supposed to run their businesses.

Obama has said that he wants to push universities to offer courses in the green industry. This would fast track the government’s control of the industry and eliminate the initial progress that industries make prior to government involvement. The software industry, for example, was moving much faster before only those with computer science degrees were allowed to contribute. Some of my educational rants should explain why this happens.

A benefit of getting rid of the schools would be a decrease in mindlessness. In America, telling consumers that you make a product that they want is far more important than actually making products that they want. Companies like Apple have embraced the mindlessness. They are horrible at offering what consumers want, but they are great at convincing consumers to want what they offer. This has resulted in Apple slapping their logo on high-priced electronics that underperform against their competition.

If all we have is money, greed will come at the expense of quality of life. Capitalism should encourage humanity to progress, but we need to have more to life than just money. If we sacrifice ourselves for wealth, we are not going to move forward. We will be in the same mess that we are in now. I feel that capitalism can work, but we need to do something very different to make it happen. We need to give it a chance.