Why are people so misguided by the meaning of Capitalism?
Somehow greed is associated with capitalism, because the definition has the word has "profit" right at the end. People have been greedy since the beginning of time, you can not blame a system of trade for the negative attributes and actions of people. That would be like blaming an inanimate object instead of the person when it comes to murder. Oh wait... guns, let's not get into that now.
Unfortunately this is a misguided or misunderstood perspective of what capitalism truly is. The fundamental part of capitalism is not profit, it's actually ownership, the ownership of yourself, your labor and your property. Which you are freely able to trade for profit, if you so choose. Human rights are based on this basic fundamental principle of ownership. Many people completely ignore this very vital part of the definition and only focus on the "for profit" part, then conflate it with greed.
Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned. - Ayn Rand
Capitalism is choice and is the freedom of that choice, no one forces you to buy an iPhone, you choose to buy one. If there were 3 of us and 2 decide, by way of vote, to take what the one owns, that's socialism and also theft. Which is also how slavery came about. The problem is not a means of trade, it is and always will be the state.
When people use words like fairness, equality and democracy I sometimes wonder if they truly understand the meaning. Why do people think they are entitled to the property and labour of others?
The short answer is, they are not.
Thanks for reading, please share your thoughts in the comments below.
