Crescit cum commercio civitas.
A truck stop in Breezewood, PA (credit: Edward Burtynsky)
On November 25th, the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum hosted its annual Thanksgiving debate. Four top students from the Claremont Colleges Debate Society tackled the resolution “consumers should opt out of Black Friday.”
Extraordinarily, members of both teams identified themselves on stage as Marxists. In speeches made both in favor of and in opposition to consumer participation in Black Friday, debaters reaffirmed that capitalism was a fundamentally immoral system. One debater quipped “I live for Marxist revolution.” The debate was entertaining, but the serious ideas expressed therein were, as the professor sitting next me put it, frightening. Debaters tasked with defending Black Friday could have straightforwardly defended markets. Instead, they opted to argue with the presupposition that capitalism was a moral evil.
55% of Americans between the ages of 18-29 view capitalism negatively, compared to only 51% for socialism. And as we’ve seen over the past week, this negative view of capitalism can sometimes take on a deadly form. Millions of young people have rallied online in support of Luigi Mangione following his assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which was seemingly influenced by past anti-capitalist terrorists such as Ted Kascynski. A New York Times analysis of the public reaction to the killing argues that Mangione has become a sort of “modern day folk hero.” Our generation is at the frontline of this reaction. We all saw friends celebrate murder with memes and quips. But these reactions exhibit callous disregard for human life and mask the ways in which capitalism is a system of liberation rather than oppression.
Given rising income inequality and rampant inflation, it’s understandable that some are weary of American capitalism. But this weariness ignores the many benefits capitalism has provided. The global shift towards international capitalism and away from Medieval mercantilism lifted a supermajority of the world’s population out of extreme poverty. For instance, in 1953, South Korea was, by some measures, the poorest nation in the world. President Park Chung-Hee’s embrace of market liberalization and global trade has turned them into one of the richest. South Korea remains a troubled nation, but their progress is remarkable. Data clearly indicate that freer markets correlate with economic success at every level, including the poor. As CMC’s motto declares, “civilization prospers with commerce.”
Contrast this to the worldview of Marxism. Marxist revolution has never once succeeded. The 20th century saw dozens of attempts at communist governance, but these experiments were universally rife with political repression. All but a handful faced socio-economic collapse. Where capitalism has built wealth, albeit often concentrated, Marxism has succeeded in little more than equalizing poverty.
Further, models exist for maintaining capitalism’s great potential for competition and wealth building with economic justice. For instance, German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and his Christian Democratic Party pioneered the “social market economy,” merging relative business freedom with the mechanisms of a strong social safety net. The “Nordic model,” often incorrectly labeled as socialistic, similarly pairs markets with a social safety net. These efforts have recognized capitalism’s drawbacks and responded with altered methods of wealth distribution. Nevertheless, they have accepted the core premise that capitalism promotes economic freedom.
On campuses such as Claremont, children of the most privileged tout the strongest opposition to the systems they have benefitted from the most. Defending capitalism isn’t about defending billionaires. Markets are not just Elon Musk and UnitedHealthcare. The free market is a living system that we encounter and benefit from daily. Capitalism is the mom and pop shops littered throughout the Claremont Village. Capitalism is the seven cross-campus dining halls raising the quality of their food to compete for our foot traffic. Capitalism is the system that allows you to choose where to go to school, what to do for work, and how you want to spend your money. And without it, we’d all be worse off.
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