Capitalism, The Unknown Ideal (my thoughts)

Any Rand’s mind is one that conservatives champion, rightly in my opinion, as the concepts that underpin modern day conservative politics can unlikely be articulated much better than through her writing.  My leanings towards conservatism have a lot to do with her writing, and for that reason no one here can likely remember a time when I railed against free trade or capitalism as a detriment to mankind when put beside socialism, or that the primary root of evil lies within the system working within our lives today.  Rather my philosophy today has much to do with incompetence and the looting of personal property for the benefit of individuals with political power – through the subsidized benefit of a business and therefore an individual using the tax revenue taken from you and I – allowing these individuals to realize success and an influx of wealth that otherwise they could not produce for themselves in the free market. 

Dennis Miller once used Dick Cheney in his standup act, mocking whoever supposedly criticized his legitimacy as a candidate due to his personal wealth, stating that he wants successful people in charge as opposed to a loser who couldn’t accomplish what he had.  The fact that this bit makes a lot of sense to many, conservatives especially, is something that has troubled me for quite some time now.  As the basis for ‘success’ in Miller’s mind and those of others is nothing more than the size of one’s bank account, and not how one came about it.  Would Miller celebrate the Enron executive who became wealthy selling their stock options early with the knowledge that they’d be worthless in a short amount of time?  The technology bubble in the late 90s is littered with hundreds (perhaps thousands) of examples of just that, so are these people naturally of higher value to society because they were smart enough to ‘cash in’ before it was too late? 

I reject the argument that wealth is intrisicly tied to ability or value in the opinion of a free market.  There are people who innovate, invent, out-produce and find a way to price out their competition – and it is that individual who is celebrated less today by our political right-wing than the individual who needs the government to achieve that same end.  Dick Cheney did not become wealthy because of his ability and superiority to others within the free market, but instead because he was able to manipulate government in allocating resources for the benefit of a corporation that took him on for that reason and nothing more.  Prior to becoming CEO of Halliburton, Cheney’s net worth was around a million dollars, and when he became Vice President that number was over 60 million dollars.  The contracts that Halliburton and KBR secured from our government to serve food and do laundry, previously tasks that the military had accomplished for itself with higher efficiency and lower costs, were what earned him his wealth.

It was not that the man had created anything that the market deemed worthy of purchase, but instead that he had corrupted a portion of our government which led to a waste of our tax dollars.  Without the government’s ability to write out checks, Dick Cheney would not be as wealthy as he is today.  Rand considers an individual who acquires a fortune through the theft of other individuals’ taxes an anathema to capitalism in its true form.  These individuals only help to necessitate the need for more money to be stolen from each of us out of our paychecks to make up the difference and ensure that police, firefighters, schools and roads are funded year after year.  While our debt is financed by other countries, individuals with power and/or connections within government make the problem worse by taking from you and I what they could not earn with the ability they have in the free market.

The celebration or admiring of such individuals is widespread, as is the statement from those same people who are offering praise that they celebrate this individual because of their belief in capitalism and the ideal of free markets.  I propose the argument here and now that these people, Dennis Miller being one of them, haven’t the slightest concept of what capitalism actually is in the first place.  Rather they hope that their understanding of capitalism is embodied by the politicians they champion, and whatever those politicians do or acomplish for themselves, ends up to equal their definition of capitalism at the time. 

And like this, the brutal fact is exposed that politics trump capitalism, politics define capitalism, which to me is a disgusting step backwards for humanity and American society in particular.  Capitalism is the concept that brought us to the state of prosperity and opportunity you and I enjoy today, and with our future prosperity and survival in mind, should first be truly understood and then held in higher regard than the words or deeds of any government or political identity our heart urges our mind to support and condone the actions of. 

We’re becoming quite stupid in our understanding of the world around us, and it frequently gets on my nerves…the Dennis Miller special was for HBO and I’m pretty sure it as titled ‘The Live Feed’ or something to that effect.  I go on this rant because of the fact that his appeal to me in the past was an understanding of capitalism, which I all at once discovered was a mistake on my part.  Though the thought that scared me more than that was how millions of people could hear his Cheney bit and think to themselves that he makes sense.  Sad day…