The ideal behind capitalism is that each person in the master of his or her own destiny, and that each individual should be able to realise their full potentials as human beings. They also say the state should only intervene to prevent the infringement of one individuals rights by another.
This philosophy is admirable. It is true that we were not all born with the grace and style to become ballet dancers, i sure as shit wasn't. And not everyone has the mental capacity to become astrophysicists, so we all have diferent talents and within each talent, we all have different maximum ability levels; those who can triple pirrouette and those who can only do it twice. *shrug* i should have chosen an analogy i knew more about. But anyway, this shows we can't all be born exactly the same.
But we should all be given the opportunity to ahcieve our maximum potentials.
From "Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder. READ IT!!!
"Two equally old trees are growing in a very large garden. One of the trees grows in a sunny spot and has plenty of good soil and water. The other tree grows in poor soil in a dark spot. Which of the trees do you thinknis bigger? And which of them bears more fruit.?"
"Obviously the tree with the best conditions for growing."
"According to Spinoza, this tree is free. It has its full fredom to develop its inherent abilities. But if it is an apple tree it will not have the ability to bear pears or plums. The same applies to us humans. We can be hindered in our development and our personal growth by political conditions, for instance. Outer circumstances can constrain us. Only when we are free to develop our innate abilities can we live as free beings."
The idea in capitalism is that each person should be able to reach their maximum potential without being held back by being forced to be the same as everyone else, as in the communisms of old.
However in order to ensure that every individual can achieve their full potential, they must all start off their lives in the same conditions.
Using Gaarder's trees, imagine two trees of the same kind germinate, but one has a potential to grow 60ft tall, and the other only to 40ft. Now the would-be-tall tree will need more water and nutrients than the shorter one. In previous communisms, this would not be permitted and the trees would only be allowed a low-set level of water to ensure they grow to the same height. In pure capitalism both trees would have to fight over a set amount of water, and the winner would have achieved their potential, and the other one theirs as they were less able to obtain the water.
Now that may seem unfair, and it does to me. But my reason can find nothing wrong with it. The trees competed, and the one was better at this competition than the other.
However consider the offspring. Imagine both trees died and rotted, but not before releasing a seed, which would both grow into another tree in the same spots as their parents. It doesn't happen like this, but imagine that when the old trees rot they give up the water they'd collected in their lives to the soil where their offspring now grow. And also imagine that no more water will be put into the story by external forces such as you or I. The one whose parent grew the tallest will now have a distinct advantage over the one whose parent was not as tall as they will have more water. Imagine that now both have the ability to grow 50ft tall, the only one who can reach it's potential was the one with the tall parent, as the one with the short parent has only 40feet-worth of water in it's soil.
This is more or less the way capitalism works currently, and the way pure capitalism would run if left unchecked for a few generations. Start from scratch, put a finite but excessive amount of money in the world, share it out and then let's suggest that people make/invent things to sell in exchange for other peoples monney. The people who make good or clever products get the larger shares of the finite amount of money. Assume they deserve this simply because they managed to obtain it, as they realised their full potential in this field. Now they have children and die and so these children inherit the money the parents obtained, whether or not they too are clever enough to deserve it. i.e did they have the potential to earn it themselves? Like their parents did? Similarly, the people who didn't fare so well in the obtaining the money could have had potential-genius offspring, who had the potential to obtain even more money than the folk mentioned previously.
Throw in some social stigma against poor people, charge for education so only the rich can afford it and the genius offspring never become genius', and soon you'll end up where we are now.
The only way to realise the potential for freedom found in the capitalism ideal, is with a communist-style base.
Give everyone the same opportunities for greatness by not permitting the inheritance of wealth. Reset the playing field whenever a player dies. When two people marry their assets become fused and so the widow/widower can still choose to keep the wealth when their partner dies, but their children cannot, as this would eventually lead to an unbridgeable gap in society between those of rich lineage and those of poor. It is every parents right to provide the best life for their children while they are growing, as far as nourishment and entertainment go. But the education must be of the same standard as all other children, which must be the highest standard imaginable.
Similarly, we must protect future generations from the lack of potential of their ancestors. The "state" must provide the necessities and a basic level of comfort for those families who require it, in order that their progeny be permitted to reach their full potential. The purpose of this is to remove the bite out of competition. Which is in itself the purpose of society, to help those less able to obtain their own means of survival.
This is the ideal of capitalist freedom combined with the ideal of communist compassion. In capitalism the idea is that people can think, feel, believe and do what they want as long as it doesn't harm others. In most versions you hear about and experience, this doesn't happen. It's a free-for-all, a rat-race. This version provides a way to make self-determination work without abandoning our consciences. Think it through my friends.