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Where have all the Capitalists gone?

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Mister A

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http://blogs.forbes.com/richardsalsman/2010/12/05/where-have-all-the-capitalists-gone/

Basic gist: Despite the obvious successes of Capitalism in regards to production, quality of life and technological advancement, people on both political sides loathe it because they can't shake off anti-life premises like the malevolent universe and the soul-body dichotomy.

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http://blogs.forbes....pitalists-gone/

Basic gist: Despite the obvious successes of Capitalism in regards to production, quality of life and technological advancement, people on both political sides loathe it because they can't shake off anti-life premises like the malevolent universe and the soul-body dichotomy.

I think capitalists have sold out, given up, and are laying low. They have never proudly defended themselves from a moral base, but only on a pragmatic one, and are getting what they deserve as a result.

Salsman's closing is very good:

"Unless rational selfishness is understood as the one moral code consistent with genuine humanity, and the moral estimate of capitalism improves, socialism will keep making comebacks..."

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An important distinction between freemarket capitalism versus state capitalism is the respect for the individual as opposedto the deference to group think. The free market capitalist succeeds on his orher own merits and talents. A person succeeds in state capitalism by benefitingfrom the successes of talented free market capitalists. In the context of themodern conflict between state capitalism (socialism) and free market capitalism,the contest has been poisoned by socialists through the injection of classism. Realistically,socialism cannot compete with free market capitalism on merit. Socialism hasits home in the state. By definition the state does not produce anything andcan only function based on the taxation realized from the economy as the state’sonly function is governance. In the United States, the governance is inaccordance with our Constitution. Therefore, socialism can only owe its successto a prosperous free market economy. A person with ideas and ambition does notneed the state to succeed in so long as the state performs it function of stayingout of the way of success. Eventually, a socialist government will fail as thefree market economy does.

With the rise of socialism has comethe mechanics of group psychology where people have been aggregated from the populationas individuals and rather viewed as components of an interest group. Politicalinterests, which are groups by themselves, cannot compete unless they can takeindividuals and put them in corresponding groups which can be defined, isolatedand then either attacked or coopted. A simple yet effective influence in this processis the emotion envy. This base emotion drives so many perspectives in thepolitical conversation where people have come to identify themselves in thecontext of have or have not out of class envy. This subjective assessment hasbeen harnessed as a tool to justify socialists in their pursuit of conquering freemarket capitalism. They cannot deny the obvious power and potential of free marketcapitalism; they just do not like the outcome. They see a system where peoplecan succeed wildly based on their abilities and motivations but cannot help to contrastthat outcome to the lack of success seen by others who may lack the ambition,talents and or motivations to a comparable level of success. Rather thanaddress these perceived inequalities through their own wealth, socialists have pursueda course of wealth redistribution to compel their self defined adversaries,free market capitalists, as the sources of remediation in this issue.

We now have a conflict setup basednot on the basis of critical thinking and objective analysis but rather in themushy gray area of subjectivism. Free market capitalists permit themselves tobe trapped into conversing in terms of enoughness, fairness and what is just.Once ensnared in this dishonest conversation, the pejoratives greedy and “fatcat” are employed to attack those parties and individuals who are deemed unworthyof the wealth they have earned. By employing the disingenuous shield of thepoor, women and children, statists succeed in further shaming the free market capitalistinto surrendering income so as not to be seen as a greedy and selfish people.One’s commitment to private charity is not sufficient. As this first step istaken, the how much is enough question, sustainability and social justice termsare added to the lexicon. These terms can have any meaning and soon take on varyingrelative definitions based on the speaker’s viewpoint. When objective thinkershave given up thinking critically and allow themselves to be drawn into aconversation of shifting perspectives, they have lost long before any outcomeis reached as a result of the conversation. That is, in acquiescing their intellectualhigh ground over emotions, they have given up the ability to engage in the conversationobjectively. They have descended into the fray with the rest of the group withall its shifting viewpoints.

Free market capitalists should notbe ashamed of their successes and should not allow their successes to be dishonestlymisrepresented by the statist critics. These socialists have in precedingdecades employed the Kantian notion that one’s intentions are more important thanthe results achieved. They have successfully employed the misdirection ofpeoples’ attentions from the failures of socialists and rather magnified the successof free market capitalists as excesses. We are all human and as such ouractions are directed in some manner by our emotions. The socialists haverefined the art of manipulating emotions of the public in propelling statecapitalism while free market capitalists unmoved by the group think in thecontext of social engineering play both sides of the field by placating the socialistsas necessary in as long as business can go on as usual. The flaw in thismentality is that once these socialist have identified a means of extractingtribute from the free marketers, these same statists only intensify their casefor more. They in affect engage in the same greedy excess they claim to oppose.But, since they claim this excess is in the name of a group of have not’s atthe expense of the rich, this excess is forgivable, understandable, condonedand even encouraged. What is worse, the decades of this kabuki theater hasresulted in a free market class which accepts it has somehow committed someaffront to society and must atone for this indictment not through any expandedcharity but through the altruism financed by higher taxation for the greatergood of society. That decades of this state funded charity has not solvedproblems but in some cases exacerbated matters is not important. Only theintent to do good matters not results.

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I think capitalists have sold out, given up, and are laying low. They have never proudly defended themselves from a moral base, but only on a pragmatic one, and are getting what they deserve as a result.

By and large, this is certainly true, but there are also definitely those out there who would proudly defend themselves. Take the following video of John Allison, former CEO of BB&T bank, on John Stossel's show. Stossel asks him about the morality of having made 7 million dollars last year, and he replies, "Well, actually John, I think I earned it." To see this, start from minute 6:35 or so.

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